News & Public Affairs

Facing budget shortfalls WMNF lays off three employees listen

06/23/10 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: wmnf, Media, layoffs, jobs, Unemployment

Please note the important update to this story on 30 June: the layoffs were taken back.

The economy is hitting everyone hard, especially media organizations. This radio station, WMNF, 88.5 FM has faced economic difficulties in the past and has made budget cuts over the last few years. But for the first time in the station’s 31-year history, WMNF laid off employees yesterday because of budget cuts. We spoke with station manager J...

91 comments

Florida unemployment hits another record high: 12.3% listen

04/16/10 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Unemployment, unemployment rate, Agency for Workforce Innovation

Another month, another record number for unemployment in Florida. The state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation released the March unemployment numbers today, and their economist, Rebecca Rust, says it’s not good news: the rate hit a record of 12.3%

The number of people in Florida who are underemployed is probably much higher.

Be the first to comment

Kendrick Meek, Candidate for US Senate

04/06/10 Robert Lorei
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Unemployment, green jobs, health care reform, tea party, Kendrick Meek, WMNF

Our guest on the first part of today's program is south Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek. He is running for the Democratic nomination for US Senate. He joins us now via cell phone; he's on I-95 driving up to a campaign appearance on Florida's east coast.

FMI http://www.kendrickmeek.com

Be the first to comment

Florida unemployment hits record high 12.2 percent, worse in Tampa Bay listen

03/26/10 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Unemployment, unemployment rate, Alex Sink, Kendrick Meek

Florida’s unemployment rate is the highest it’s ever been. The Agency for Workforce Innovation’s chief economist Rebecca Rust announced today the state’s unemployment rate was 12.2 percent in February.

Rust says this unemployment rate breaks the record for the highest since 1970 when records began being kept.

Unemployment is even higher in the Tampa Bay area. It’s 12.6 percent in Pinellas County and 12.7 percent in Hillsborough. The county with the second-highest unemployment rate in ...

3 comments

Florida Unemployment ties record high listen

03/10/10 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Unemployment, census

Florida’s unemployment rate in January tied the highest since records began in 1970.

Rebecca Rust, chief economist for the Agency for Workforce Innovation, said it increased to 11.9% from the revised month-ago rate of 11.7%.

Florida’s unemployment is more than two points higher than the nationwide rate of 9.7%. Rust says that translates to more than a million Floridians out of work.

“It’s 1,100,000 unemployed Floridians out of a labor force of 9,231,000 for January 2010.”

Florida...

Be the first to comment

Job fair for veterans in downtown Tampa. listen

12/03/09 Joshua Lee Holton
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Veterans Affairs, veterans fair, jobs, Unemployment, unemployment rate, wmnf

Seeing combat oversees can be a challenge, but for many veterans, finding a job is a battle that is just as hard to wage. A group called Recruit Military held a job fair for veterans this morning at the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts to help veterans get work.

About 300 unemployed veterans were expected to attend a job fair in downtown Tampa today. RecruitMilitary is veteran-owned-and-operated military-to-civilian recr...

Be the first to comment

Florida unemployment stays high listen

09/18/09 Mitch E. Perry
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Unemployment

Florida’s unemployment rate continues to stay at its highest levels in three decades.

Rebecca Rust is the chief economist with the Agency for Workforce Innovation. She said that all industries in the state remain down in employment, with the exception of private education and health care.

Leading the way in job losses are the professional services, such as employer and temporary worker agencies.

In the Tampa Bay area, the highest level of unemployment remains in Hernando County, ...

Be the first to comment

Florida borrows to pay unemployment listen

08/25/09 Mitch E. Perry
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Unemployment

With Florida's unemployment rate the highest it’s been in over 3 decades, the state’s savings account to pay unemployment compensation claims ran out of money yesterday.

But officials with the state Agency for Workforce Innovation stress that benefits will continue to flow to laid-off workers as Florida begins to borrow from the federal government.

Robbie Cunningham is with the Agency for Workforce Innovation. Cunningham told a Florida newspaper that Florida is authorized to borrow $300...

Be the first to comment

FL unemployment rate hits highest rate since 1975 listen

06/19/09 Mitch E. Perry
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Unemployment

The unemployment rate in Florida has now risen to over 10%, the highest recorded level in the state since 1975.

The official number is at 10.2 percent – that’s a half point higher than last month, nearly a full point higher than the national rate, and nearly 6 points higher than a year ago in Florida.

(roll tape#1 o.q.’of the nation”)

Housing starts remain down, but sales are up over the quarter and over a year. Rebecca Rust, Chief Economist with the Agency for Workforce Innovation...

1 comments

Gelber: Lawmakers didn't have to reject stimulus money listen

05/08/09 Mitch E. Perry
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Politics, unemployment, federal stimulus money

As the Florida legislative session concludes today, one thing that the Republican-led Legislature did that has outraged some Democrats and bothered Gov. Charlie Crist, is the rejection of $444 million in federal stimulus money for the unemployment trust fund.

When it was rejected, GOP lawmakers suggested it would be fraudulent to change the eligibility rules in a few years when the economy improves; they said the money would only cover two months of unemployment and sap the state’s unemplo...

Be the first to comment