Welcome to

Florida’s unemployment rate was down to 10.4 percent in June according to the latest statistics published by the Department of Economic Opportunity.

It’s down from 13.7 percent in May, but indications are July’s numbers won’t be as promising.

Florida’s unemployment sits below the national average of 11.1 percent.

In June the state added 296,000 jobs.

Three out of five were in the hospitality sector.

“Largely it’s a result of restaurants and a more broad reopening across the state,” said Adrienne Johnston, Chief of DEO’s Bureau of Labor Market Statistics.

But a lot has happened since June.

The state’s COVID cases have continued to skyrocket, forcing the state to once again close bars.

“We would expect to see the impacts from that in the July report,” said Johnston.

Senator Randolph Bracy represents parts of Orange County, which has the second highest unemployment rate in the state at 17.2 percent.

He worries the hospitality industry is in worse shape than the latest numbers reflect.

“Businesses are laying off people and things have changed a lot. So I don’t think that these numbers reflect what’s actually happening in our economy,” said Bracy.

Since the start of July, the state has also seen a rise in unemployment claims, averaging more than 21,000 a day.

That’s nearly a 25 percent increase over June’s daily average.

And Senator Linda Stewart, who also represents the Orlando area, told us until the state gets a hold of the virus, it can expect more economic woes.

“We need tourism to thrive. That’s our number one contribution to our budget,” said Stewart.

The state also acknowledged unemployment rates may be slightly higher than reported, due to some furloughed workers inaccurately indicating they are employed.

The numbers also don’t reflect those who have stopped looking for work.

As of Friday afternoon, the state had paid out nearly $10.5 billion to more than 1.7 million Floridians.