The Department of Economic Opportunity records show 218,000 claims had been processed by Friday. In the past week, officials processed a little less than 50,000 applications. That is only 31% of the claims coming in.Gov. Ron DeSantis is acknowledging frustration with the state's unemployment system.“This thing was a clunker, there's no doubt about it. It was designed with all these different things to basically fail,” DeSantis said.On Friday, Tallahassee law firms filed a complaint on behalf of Floridians who did not receive pivotal unemployment benefits. The suit names DeSantis and the Department of Economic Opportunity. It claims: “The system is a colossal failure. Persons like the plaintiffs named herein have not been able to obtain benefits that they should have been able to obtain due to the gross negligence."At a Friday press conference, DeSantis addressed the lawsuit by saying it was set up before he became governor, and assured Floridians improvements are coming.“What's been going on since this crashed is people have been in round the clock. These people have been working. I mean, we have engineers in there. There have been so many changes,” DeSantis said.Furthering some frustration, DEO is shutting down the Connect Site this weekend.Head of the unemployment site, Jonathan Satter tells WESH 2 News officials will be able to process more applications while the site is down.The Connect site is expected to be back online at 8 a.m. Monday. Gov. DeSantis says unemployment benefits are his top non-health priority.

The Department of Economic Opportunity records show 218,000 claims had been processed by Friday.

In the past week, officials processed a little less than 50,000 applications. That is only 31% of the claims coming in.


Gov. Ron DeSantis is acknowledging frustration with the state's unemployment system.



“This thing was a clunker, there's no doubt about it. It was designed with all these different things to basically fail,” DeSantis said.

On Friday, Tallahassee law firms filed a complaint on behalf of Floridians who did not receive pivotal unemployment benefits. The suit names DeSantis and the Department of Economic Opportunity. It claims: “The system is a colossal failure. Persons like the plaintiffs named herein have not been able to obtain benefits that they should have been able to obtain due to the gross negligence."

At a Friday press conference, DeSantis addressed the lawsuit by saying it was set up before he became governor, and assured Floridians improvements are coming.



“What's been going on since this crashed is people have been in round the clock. These people have been working. I mean, we have engineers in there. There have been so many changes,” DeSantis said.



Furthering some frustration, DEO is shutting down the Connect Site this weekend.



Head of the unemployment site, Jonathan Satter tells WESH 2 News officials will be able to process more applications while the site is down.



The Connect site is expected to be back online at 8 a.m. Monday. Gov. DeSantis says unemployment benefits are his top non-health priority.



