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

ESD reported a total of 26,366 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending November 14. Of this total, 18,837 initial claims were under the regular state unemployment insurance program; 2,693 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 6,836 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment compensation program, which extends the maximum term of benefits from 26 weeks to 39 weeks.

The number of new claims for regular unemployment insurance is a decrease of 8,364 from the number of claims filed during the preceding week. This decrease largely offsets last week’s increase, which was due to ESD moving some recipients to the state program from the federal program. (See this Seattle Times article.) The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 17,729, down 13 from the preceding week.

I estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 17,649, down from 19,110 (revised) the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is a decrease of 1,079 from the number filed during the preceding week.

Note: In May, Washington’s unemployment insurance system was hit by a rash of fraudulent claims. Most of these false claims were filed between May 1 and May 16, which coincides with the second, lower peak during the current recession.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 407,748 in the most recent week. This is an increase of 14,484 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.