The state Employment Security Department reports another week of elevated unemployment insurance claims.
During the week of August 23 through August 29, there were 18,172 initial regular unemployment claims (down 1.2 percent from the prior week) and 560,920 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (down 1.4 percent from the prior week) filed by Washingtonians, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD).
Reviewing the data, Washington Research Council economist Kriss Sjoblom writes,
ESD reported a total of 28,871 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the August 23–29 week. Of this total, 18,172 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 4,590 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 6,109 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment compensation program, which extends the maximum term of benefits from 26 weeks to 39 weeks.
Here’s the ESD breakdown for recent weeks:
Unemployment claim type
Week of
August 23-August 29
Week of
August 16-August 22
Week of
August 9-August 15
Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) initial claims
18,172
18,389
21,942
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims
4,590
4,256
4,726
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims
6,109
6,011
6,294
Continued/ongoing weekly claims
532,049
540,225
564,512
Total claims
560,920
568,881
597,474
The ESD chart of total claims shows the very slight downward trend in the last several months.
Seattle Times business reporter Paul Roberts writes,
In the latest weekly reminder of the economic damage from the pandemic, Washington workers continued to file for unemployment insurance in historically high numbers.
For the week ending Aug. 29, workers filed 18,172 new, or “initial”, claims for regular unemployment insurance, the state Employment Security Department (ESD) reported Thursday. That’s down 1.2% from the prior week, but it’s still nearly four times the number filed the same week in 2019.
The total number of workers who received benefits from Washington state last week was 348,102, which is down 2.4% from the prior week, but still higher than the peak reached by the state during the Great Recession.
The economy continues to struggle.
