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

ESD reported a total of 34,114 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending September 19th. Of this total, 19,574 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 5,284 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 9,256 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 an increase of 1,171 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 19,039, up 296 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 4,220 from the number filed during the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 27,828 up from 27,800 (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 506,153 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 23,241 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.