Sara Girard

As expected, Florida’s unemployment rate skyrocketed in April to 12.9%. That was up about 8.5 percentage points from March. Much of Southwest Florida was hit harder than most of the rest of the state. Charlotte County is at 15.6% unemployment Lee County is at 14.6% unemployment Collier County is at 13.4% unemployment Hendry County is […]

WINK News has sent the state thousands of names of people who are still waiting for unemployment benefits or have unanswered questions and concerns, and some of you said Wednesday that you’ve gotten paid as a result. More than 7,300 names have been sent to the Department of Economic Opportunity and the office of Gov. […]

In less than 24 hours, thousands of you filled out our online form with your questions and concerns about unemployment, wondering if and when you’ll receive benefits. WINK News on Tuesday sent the first 5,000 names to the Department of Economic Opportunity and the governor’s office after Gov. Ron DeSantis challenged reporters to show him […]

Florida reached $2 billion in unemployment claims paid over the weekend. But, still, we keep hearing from a lot of you that you still haven’t been paid or were wrongfully denied. Gov. Ron DeSantis is firing back at anyone saying they aren’t getting what they are entitled to. He said that some people may have […]

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s claims dashboard said Friday that it now has paid more than 740,000 people a total of over $1.86 billion as of May 14. Gov. Ron DeSantis at his press conference on Friday said he’s glad money is going out the door. He told reporters the unemployment website was not […]

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity claims dashboard now says that 95 percent of eligible claimants have been paid their unemployment benefits. However, many of you tell us you’re still waiting for those promised payments, and you still can’t log on to the website or get answers over the phone. Doug French said he has […]

Roughly 666,000 unemployment claims in Florida have been paid out since March, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s claims dashboard. That’s half of all claims submitted, and hundreds of thousands of people remain in the queue. The DEO confirmed with WINK News on Tuesday that it’s limiting the numbers of users allowed on the CONNECT website […]

We continue to report on updates about Florida’s unemployment system during the coronavirus pandemic as new information from the state becomes available. And we are continuing to ask the governor your questions. We pressed the governor again Monday about issues with the unemployment website. Over the weekend, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity website, CONNECT, […]

A day after a Florida circuit court judge dismissed a motion to get unemployment payments out faster, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said the fight isn’t over. They’ve come up with a new avenue, hoping to convince a new judge to get emergency relief to the unemployed immediately. Mike Barody is one of hundreds of thousands of […]

A plan to get people their much-needed unemployment benefits immediately has hit a snag. A judge on Wednesday sided with the state to dismiss an order asking for immediate payments to the unemployed. The Department of Economic Opportunity’s dashboard on Wednesday shows the state says it has paid roughly 43 percent of claims. A lot […]