This morning the state Employment Security Department reported that it received 170,063 new claims for unemployment insurance during the March 29-April 4 week. This is a decrease of 11,912 from the 181,975 claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of claims is 123,721, up from 82,842 for the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of initial claims was 133,960, up from 93,220 for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.