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

ESD reported a total of 32,718 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending November 28. Of this total, 22,334 initial claims were under the regular state unemployment insurance program; 3,302 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 7,082 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 7,940 from the number of claims filed during the preceding week. ESD notes:

The drop in initial claims this week correlate to industries that saw the most significant increases in initial claims last week, when the impacts of the public health restrictions first appeared in the weekly data. This indicates those impacts have leveled out this week. Initial claims in the Accommodation and Food Services sector were down 2,769 over the week. Initial claims from the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation sector were down 480 over the week and initial claims in the Retail trade sector were down 720 initial claims over the week. In terms of decreases in initial claims by occupations over the week, the largest decreases occurred in initial claims filed from food preparation and serving related occupations, which was down 3,390 initial claims over the week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is a decrease of 2,399 from the number filed during the preceding week.

The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 23,662, up 1,913 from the preceding week. I estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 19,299, down from 19,330 (revised) 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 426,963 in the most recent week. This is an increase of 5,136 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.