This morning the state Employment Security Department (ESD) gave its weekly report on unemployment insurance claims.

A note of caution about these numbers: In recent weeks, Washington’s unemployment insurance system has been hit by a rash of fraudulent claims (press releases here and here). As a result, the unemployment insurance claims data released weekly by ESD overstate the number of individuals who have truly lost their jobs. The degree of overstatement is unknown at the present time. It is believed that most of the fraudulent claims were filed between May 1 and May 16.

ESD reported a total of 54,278 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the May 24–May 30 week. Of this total, 31,224 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 12,878 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 10,176 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment compensation program, which extends the maximum term of benefits from 26 weeks to 39 weeks.

The number new claims for regular unemployment insurance is a decrease of 17,221 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 81,957, down 17,385 from the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is a decrease of 17,307 from the number filed during the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 97,360, down from 116,430 (revised) the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 774,959 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 155,423 from the revised number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.