Pensacola Times

Unemployment in Escambia County currently is almost 12% but that isn't helping area businesses fill open job slots, the Pensacola News Journal recently reported.

Lawn Team owner Harold Smith told the Pensacola newspaper that he doesn't have that many openings but he can't find workers for those posts because he can't offer what they can make in unemployment benefits.

"The work is going to continue to come in and then once we cannot meet the standards or be able to provide the work that the market is already doing, it kind of falls back on my name," Smith said in the Pensacola News Journal news story published June 30. "That's frustrating. Our name is on the line because we can't handle the volume we were once able to."

Jeff Elbert, owner of Island Style, a beach shop in Navarre Beach, told the News Journal he was able to put most of his employees back to work after he received funding from the federal Paycheck Protection Program funding.

A few of his employees chose to remain on unemployment benefits to protect elder relatives.

"It's certainly been an interesting struggle because when we missed the spring, we came right into the summer, so we're kind of chasing our tail a little bit," Elbert said in the News Journal story. "We're trying to do all the right things to keep our economy going and our customers happy and our employees safe."

Pensacola Times reached out to Smith and Elbert for additional comment but received no replies.

Escambia County's not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate currently stands at 11.8%.

Smith, Elbert and other business owners quoted in the News Journal are not the only businesses struggling to find workers amid the worsening pandemic. Although jobs are available, some Floridians are choosing not to apply because COVID-19, Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Todd Thomson said in the news story.

"In speaking to some of the employment agencies in the past week, I've heard the same thing – that they've got jobs," Thompson said in the story. "It's just whether [employees have] concerns about the virus or that they are getting benefits right now and prefer not to work." 

Thomson also said those who are out of work might be more willing to take jobs after the CARES Act's additional unemployment benefits expires this month.