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Florida unemployment rates skyrocket prompting rallies across the state

Floridians rallied in Orlando, Tallahassee and Tampa on Wednesday asking lawmakers why it’s taking so long to fix broken DEO website.

TAMPA, Fla. — The unemployment saga continues to stain Florida. 

COVID-19 has had a crippling impact on Florida’s job market, forcing so many Floridians out of work that the state's unemployment rates are breaking new records – tripling from 4.3 percent in March to 12.9 percent in April.

According to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, another 1.2 million Floridians lost their jobs in March and April out of a 9.4 million person workforce. 

The Department of Economic Opportunity has been overwhelmed with all the requests they are getting and have had significant problems with its unemployment website processing claims. 

In some cases, Floridians are still waiting three months after requesting unemployment benefits and it’s starting to make them desperate for help. 

RELATED: Will a judge be able to force Florida to speed up unemployment fixes, payments of benefits?

On Wednesday, people rallied in Orlando, Tallahassee and Tampa asking lawmakers why it’s taking so long to fix the broken website.

“I’m a Floridian and this hurts me because I had no idea how bad our unemployment website and system were in Florida,” Kelly Johnson, who lost her job back in March as a restaurant manager said. 

She applied for unemployment benefits and had to wait a few months before any assistance came her way. 

“It’s frustrating that some lawmakers don’t see this as an emergency for Floridians. We elected the people in government and they aren’t even paying attention to our needs,” Johnson said.

Johnson says many other Floridians she has spoken to who haven’t received help yet are starting to fall deep in debt, some losing their homes.

RELATED: Floridians can get 13 additional weeks of unemployment under federal program

As their desperation grows, they started reaching out to lawmakers. 

“Most of the Democratic people we talked to have been really helpful and the republicans haven’t helped us at all. I know for the 25,000 people in my Facebook group, lawmakers inaction has inspired them to change the way they vote because it has been that hard for us,” Johnson said.

“I have been unemployed for 11 weeks and I have been trying to get help for 11 weeks,” Judy Tanzosch said. She wishes lawmakers would have acted sooner, back in March, when these glaring problems first arose. 

“Our state leaders said calling a special session would take too long and that we would have to wait to July for a law to pass. And here we are, it’s almost July and nothing has changed and there is still no plan for change,” Tanzosch said.

As months pass by with Florida unemployment numbers growing, some Floridians worry it will push a lot of people to the edge.

“I literally talked to somebody who just wants to end everything because they say they can’t take it anymore. And that should not be happening,” Johnson said.

According to Florida’s DEO website, the industries impacted most by unemployment have been: leisure and hospitality, followed by trade, transportation and utilities, professional and businesses and then education and health services.

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