Since the launch on October 15, more than 1.1 million total claims have been filed using CONNECT and more than $329 million has been paid to claimants.

On Thursday, January 2, a total of 27,180 claims were filed using CONNECT and approximately $9.6 million was paid to claimants.

Please note that the contract and all amendments have been and will continue to be available for review on DEO’s website at http://www.floridajobs.org/office-directory/division-of-workforce-services/about-workforce-services/invitation-to-negotiate-(itn).

It is important to note that the state’s unemployment rate is not derived from the Reemployment Assistance program. National and state unemployment rates are determined by a household survey called the Current Population Survey (CPS), which is collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census under contract with the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The official definition of unemployed is those who are without a job but are actively seeking work.   A person seeking work is unemployed even if they have never held a job before.  So collecting Reemployment Assistance benefits is not a requirement for being counted as unemployed. It is a common misconception that only those people currently collecting unemployment benefits are counted in the monthly unemployment estimates.  Those receiving benefits are a subset of the total unemployed.  The unemployed are defined as individuals who do not have a job but are actively seeking work. Total unemployment includes people who may not be eligible for unemployment benefits, such as people who voluntarily quit their jobs or people who have never worked before and are looking for a job for the first time.  It also includes those people who are no longer collecting Reemployment Assistance benefits, as long as they are still looking for work and have not found a job yet.