Floridians not feeling jobs stimulus yet

Nearly five months after Gov. Charlie Crist announced “Florida Back to Work,” a program that would pump $200 million into state coffers and create as many as 25,000 jobs this year, only 56 South Floridians have been hired — and time is ticking.

With less than five months left before the subsidized employment program expires, there’s a mad dash to fill the region’s 4,759 positions and claim the money needed to fund them. More than $80 million in grants earmarked for South Florida hangs in the balance since much of the cash has yet to reach the ground.

The program pays most of an employee’s salary from the time of hiring until Sept. 30, when the stimulus-funded program ends. At that time, employers have to foot the bill for the federally subsidized employees by themselves — or possibly let them go.

“At first we were going to start (hiring) back in February, and then we were supposed to start in March and here we are at the end of April and I haven’t been able to hire anyone,” said Debbie Illes, executive director of the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada. “It’s been a little frustrating.”

The delays mean individual employers will receive less overall for hiring before the program expires in September.

Representatives from the local workforce boards administering the program say the money was tied up in Washington and Tallahassee for months, slowed down by snowstorms and bureaucracy. It has only recently begun to flow into South Florida.

Despite the slow start, the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, the state labor department, says all approved South Florida positions — 2,648 in Miami-Dade and 2,111 in Broward — are on track to be filled by the end of the month.

HOW IT WORKSThe program offers employers up to 95 percent reimbursement to pay new employees hired this year. To be eligible, an employee has to have at least one child under 18 and meet income requirements.

Private and public employers in South Florida rushed to apply for the program early this year, with more than 440 looking to hire new workers and have their pay — from $7.50 an hour to about $20 — heavily subsidized by the government.

“Let’s say you have an employer who wants to hire employees,” said Rick Beasley, executive director at South Florida Workforce, which administers the program in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. “They really need the help, but they just don’t know if they can afford it. Well, here’s a way of doing it.”

The list of employers participating in the program is long and diverse. There are job openings for construction workers, paralegals, registered nurses, sales representatives, fitness trainers and positions in just about every other industry.

Beasley said his staff worked swiftly to send an application to the state labor department after the program launched in February and was approved for $57 million, more than any other region in Florida. Broward County’s Workforce One was approved for a $44 million program.

FROZEN FUNDINGThe program was supposed to begin disbursing funds in early February, but snowstorms in Washington delayed the process, said Mason Jackson, president of Workforce One.

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the program, said he could not comment on the funding delay.

In addition to being disappointed at the sluggish pace of funds disbursement, Cesar Quintero, operations manager at Fit2Go, a Miami health foods caterer, said he’s having a hard time finding applicants who meet the program qualifications. He was approved to receive $23,629 in subsidies to hire two kitchen cooks and one deliveryman at the rate of $8 per hour.