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

ESD reported a total of 19,792 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending February 13. Of this total, 13,607 initial claims were filed under the regular state unemployment insurance program; 2,638 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 3,547 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 2,037 from the number of claims filed during the preceding week. ESD notes:

Reductions in layoffs in the retail trade, accommodation & food services as well as the health care and social assistance sectors led the overall decrease in regular initial claims last week. Regular initial claims in the retail trade sector decreased by 240 claims over the week to 1,303 total regular initial claims.

The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 15,454, down 1,401 from the preceding week. I estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 13,375 down from 14,965 the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two federal pandemic programs is a decrease of 955 from the number filed during the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 427,620 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 32,038 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.