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

A note of caution about initial claims numbers: In May, Washington’s unemployment insurance system was hit by a rash of fraudulent claims (press release here). As a result, the unemployment insurance claims data released weekly by ESD have overstated the number of individuals who have truly lost their jobs. ESD has estimated that the value paid out for fraudulent claims is in the $550 million to $650 million range, with more than one-half of this subsequently recovered. It is believed that most of the fraudulent claims were filed between May 1 and May 16.

ESD reported a total of 44,469 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the June 12–20 week. Of this total, 29,612 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 7,813 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 7,044 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 84 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 29,894, down 4,708 from the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is a decrease of 2,139 from the number filed during the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 36,240, down from 42,620 the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 674,146 in the most recent week. This is an increase of 24,638 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.