Florida's unemployment insurance system: barriers to program adequacy for women, low-wage and part-time workers, and workers of color: executive summary.

Publication: Research in Brief Series

Publication Date: 01-APR-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Institute for Women's Policy Research

The Florida unemployment insurance (UI) system is not meeting its basic goal of providing a modest measure of income support to temporarily unemployed workers. This is due in significant part to the UI system's failure to keep pace with fundamental changes in the labor market, including the growth of low-wage and parttime work and the vastly expanding role of women in the labor market. This situation exists despite the significant reserves in Florida's UI trust fund, even during the current economic downturn, and record-level UI tax cuts.

In 2002, only one in three unemployed Florida workers (33 percent) received unemployment insurance, a recipiency rate that is only three-fourths the national average of 44 percent. Florida has the third lowest recipiency rate in the nation. Unfortunately, large segments of the state's most vulnerable workers are the...

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