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

ESD reported a total of 37,163 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending September 12th. Of this total, 18,403 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 7,286 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 11,474 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 1,603 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 18,743, down 885 from the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is an increase of 6,412 from the number filed during the preceding week.
We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 28,327 down from 28,729 (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 529,280 in the most recent week. This is an increase of 30,209 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.