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With construction deemed largely non-essential, there will be a hit to state revenues

When Gov. Inslee ordered Washington residents to stay home beginning March 25, he exempted essential businesses. The Puget Sound Business Journal (PSBJ) reported that the list of essential businesses left the construction industry unsure as to whether it is included or not. Yesterday, Gov. Inslee clarified: “In general, commercial and residential construction is not authorized.” […]

Initial claims by industry

Here are two charts. The first shows initial claims for unemployment insurance in Washington during the first three weeks of March by industry as a proportion of the industry’s employment in February: The second chart shows each industry’s claims during the first three weeks of March as a share of total claims over the period:

Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance

This morning the state Employment Security Department reported that it received 133,464 new claims for unemployment insurance during the March 15-21 week. This is an increase of 119,310 over the 14,154 claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of claims is 39,963, up from 7,974 for the preceding week. Here is a […]

National groups call for aid for state governments

As Congress continues to debate further response to COVID-19, some national groups are calling for aid for state governments. The National Governors Association (NGA) has asked Congress for $150 billion “in immediate direct aid to the states, with maximum flexibility for governors’ COVID19 efforts.” NGA also thinks the recently adopted temporary 6.2 percentage point increase […]

Washington cities may do better than other U.S. cities in a COVID-19-related recession

The Brookings Institution took a look at which metropolitan areas in the U.S. are most exposed to the potential recession. They consider “industries vulnerable to disruption by virus-related demand declines, shutdowns, and layoffs.” These industries are: Mining/oil and gas, Transportation, Employment services, Travel arrangements, and Leisure and hospitality. Nationally, 24.2 million people work in these […]

The food supply chain is moving (and hiring)

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story about the abundant food supply in the U.S. and the current logistical issues in getting it to the stores: You wouldn’t know it from the bare grocery store shelves across the country, but America has plenty of food. The challenge is getting it from the farm to […]

New, temporary federal mandate for paid sick leave during the crisis

Wednesday President Trump signed H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. As I noted yesterday, it includes provisions related to unemployment insurance. It also requires private employers with fewer than 500 employees and all public employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees who can’t work because they must quarantine or care for […]

Initial claims charts

Emily posted earlier today about the jump in initial claims for unemployment insurance. The first of these charts shows the four-week moving average of claims. Claims are usually shown as a four-week average in order to dilute week to week volatility. In the present situation, averaging hides the story. Here is a chart without averaging.

State distributes $87.8 million for COVID-19 response

The Office of Financial Management (OFM) announced that it has distributed $74.5 million from the disaster response account (DRA) and $13.3 million from the general fund–federal (GFF) for use in response to COVID-19. The funds are part of the $225.0 million appropriated in EHB 2965. EHB 2965 appropriates $25.0 million from the budget stabilization account […]

A big increase in unemployment claims, and how Washington is using unemployment insurance to respond to outbreak

Today the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reported that national unemployment insurance (UI) claims for the week ending March 14 increased by 70,000, to 281,000 (seasonally adjusted): “During the week ending March 14, the increase in initial claims are clearly attributable to impacts from the COVID-19 virus.” Non-seasonally adjusted data by state is available: For […]