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

ESD reported a total of 31,067 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending September 26th. Of this total, 17,734 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 4,439 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 8,894 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment compensation program, which extends the maximum term of benefits from 26 weeks to 39 weeks.

The number new claims for regular unemployment insurance is a decrease of 1,840 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 18,929, down 110 from the preceding week. Regular claims remain well above the peak reached during the Great Recession.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is a decrease of 1,207 from the number filed during the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 27,274 down from 27,756 (revised) the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 499,293 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 6,746 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.