Florida Unemployment Insurance

As of July 2016, the unemployment rate in Florida is holding steady at 4.7 percent—outranking the national average by .2 percent—but that still leaves nearly 500 thousand individuals unemployed. Governor Scott has made putting Florida First in Employment a personal mission, with 26,500 jobs created so far in 2016, and 1.16 million since 2010. The following sections are intended as a comprehensive guide to the process of applying for Reemployment Assistance, formerly known as Unemployment Insurance, in the state of Florida.

Florida Unemployment Insurance Program

Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a federal and state combined program intended for unemployed wage earners to collect benefits. Every state administers separate unemployment insurance programs, but adheres to federally mandated guidelines and principles as established by federal law.

The state of Florida recently renamed its Unemployment Insurance Program and it is now known to residents as the Reemployment Assistance (RA) Program. The name change has no effect on program policies, rules or regulations. All procedures will remain in place, and nothing will change for current or future applicants or recipients. The name change signifies Florida’s focus on building its reemployment services, in order to help the unemployed find gainful employment and income.

In the state of Florida, Reemployment Insurance benefits are the monetary compensations you collect from your Reemployment Tax Trust. While you are employed, these tax monies are deducted from the wages you earn and are entered into the trust. If you become separated from employment and your situation meets the RA eligibility requirements, you could collect monetary unemployment benefits from this trust. Florida employers are also required to pay into the trust with a reemployment tax toward unemployment insurance for all employees.

The United States Office of Unemployment Insurance (OUI) oversees and provides assistance to state workforce development programs in the implementing and administering of unemployment insurance programs and other job-loss or dislocated worker compensation programs. The OUI monitors state performance and issues legislations over the state-federal partnership.