New numbers were released Thursday from the labor department showing unemployment applications are increasing in the state of Florida.
This comes even with many businesses reopening in a limited capacity. We spoke with Bob Ketay in Naples, who just had his unemployment application rejected.
“Somewhere around June 28th would be the next time I could reapply. At the same time, the next step is to apply for PUA, which I just recently saw on the site where to do it, and, but as of this time, I am not getting any assistance from anything," said Ketay.
When Ketay finally does go to reapply, he’ll be joining the more than 221,000 people who did the same thing last week. That’s up by about 48,000 applications over the week before that. Ketay is only the latest example of the human impact of the problems people are having with Florida's unemployment system. We first became aware of the problems with the system back on March 25th, when Nancy Martin of Naples told us she and her family members had been listening to hold music for days.
Then, on April 17th, so many people got fed up with the unemployment system in Naples, they took to the streets to protest.
Finally, on April 28th, Margarida DaSilva in Cape Coral became the first person we heard about to be rejected by the unemployment system.
Now, Ketay is joining her, and the more than 332,000 people who have been rejected so far. He’s going to re-apply for federal benefits, but he has some choice words for his state officials.
“Definitely people in the government have not done their job. Should be, as a minimum, if not criminally charged, should be thrown out and prohibited to work in any government place anywhere in the country," said Ketay.
