Florida Tightens Rules For Jobless Benefits For Unemployed, Hound Finds 47,000 Jobs in State.

Pasadena, CA -- (SBWire) -- 02/21/2011 -- Florida’s governor Rick Scott has unveiled a budget which cuts down government spending in almost all government departments, including jobless benefits.

Scott’s budget plan included selling off two planes owned by the state government, cutting the education budget by 10 percent and making it harder for unemployed people to get jobless benefits. A House committee has also given the go-ahead to a plan that is similar to the one advanced by Gov. Scott, while another similar bill is now in the Senate.

The state has an unemployment rate of 12 percent and has one of the lowest levels of jobless benefits, $275 per week. But the long recession has depleted the state’s unemployment benefits fund. Because of which, Florida is now dependent on federal funds, about $2 billion so far. Scott and other public officials supporting him say it is important to cut down on such programs to reduce the deficit and make the state more business-friendly.

Under the new measures, unemployed people are eligible for benefits for only 20 weeks from the previous 26 weeks. There are also other clauses that are designed to be more business friendly. The bill increases the reasons that an unemployed person can be denied benefits. If a worker is fired for insubordination, he can be denied benefits under the proposed bill. Jobless people will also have to take lower-paying work after getting jobless benefits for 12 weeks.

Over a million people in Florida remain unemployed as of now and how these measures help them remains to be seen. Although, employment opportunities remain hard to come by in most counties, there are still over 47,000 jobs available in Florida according to Hound. Hound is a job search engine that gathers jobs directly from employer websites.