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

ESD reported a total of 32,962 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the August 9–15 week. Of this total, 21,942 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 4,762 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 6,294 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 198 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 24,477, down 1,852 from the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is an increase of 179 from the number filed during the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 31,144, down from 34,261 (revised) the preceding week.

A note of caution about this chart: In May, Washington’s unemployment insurance system was hit by a rash of fraudulent claims (press release here). ESD believes that most of the fraudulent 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 556,669 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 22,834 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.