‘Magic Fairy Dust’: Florida Restaurant Owner Says People Started Applying As Soon As Gov. DeSantis Nixed Unemployment Waivers For Job Search | The Daily Caller

A businessman who owns two restaurants – one in Florida and one in New York – said business is booming in the sunshine state after the state brought back the job search requirement for people receiving unemployment benefits while on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning.

“It’s just like that, magic fairy dust,” Buddy Foy Jr., owner of Chateau by the Lake, said. “Now you have to look for a job, the waiver is being removed for that search requirement for unemployment. And in the last 5 days, literally everyday it’s building to more and more.”

“We got zero phone calls in five months for jobs, we filled our jobs through referral, Steve, through our current employees. And in the last 5 days, our staff is saying ‘I can’t keep answering the phone, we have to serve customers’.”

Foy Jr., said business owners now get to “compete for labor” just as they had prior to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, business isn’t doing as well in New York, with Foy Jr., saying “business is tough” and that he’s “counting on referrals.”

“We will open New York Memorial Day Weekend and we will take reservations based on the supply of labor,” he said.

Foy Jr., recently moved to Florida, calling the move a “blessing” after New York forced him to shut down his business. Still, Foy Jr., says he understands why people don’t want to get a job when there’s no incentive.

“You make more money on your involvement at home, so I don’t blame them.”

Foy Jr., said when the pandemic first began and jobs were scarce, it made sense to stay home, but added that jobs are now available.

President Joe Biden has denied recent claims from Republicans that individuals are choosing to stay out of work to collect unemployment benefits after April’s jobs report saw the economy add 266,000 jobs for the month.

“I never said, and no serious analyst ever suggested, that climbing out of the deep, deep hole our economy was in would be simple, easy, immediate or perfectly steady,” the president said Tuesday.

The president then said those making claims about unemployment “underestimate the American people” and promised to “make it clear” that individuals getting unemployment benefits can’t refuse a job except for a “few COVID-19 related exceptions/”

“I know there’s been a lot of discussion since Friday’s report that people are being paid to stay home rather than go to work,” Biden said. “Well, we don’t see much evidence of that.”

Multiple states, like Alabama, have since announced they would stop participating in the federal government’s unemployment insurance program that gives Americans out-of-work an extra $300 per week.