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

ESD reported a total of 17,844 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending March 6. Of this total, 11,760 initial claims were filed under the regular state unemployment insurance program; 2,354 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 3,700 claims were filed under the federal pandemic unemployment compensation program, which adds 13 weeks to the maximum term of benefits.

The number of new claims for regular unemployment insurance is a decrease of 1,198 from the number of claims filed during the preceding week. ESD notes:

Decreases in layoffs in Construction led the overall decrease in regular initial claims last week. Regular initial claims in the Construction sector decreased by 686 initial claims over the week to 1,755 total regular initial claims.

The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 13,092, down 971 from the preceding week. I estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 13,127 up from 13,062 (revised) the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two federal pandemic programs is an increase of 611 from the number filed during the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 435,659 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 5,268 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release will be posted here.