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 46,024 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the June 6–13 week. Of this total, 29,028 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 9,346 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 7,065 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 685 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 34,603, down 27,462 from the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is a decrease of 2,768 from the number filed during the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 42,260, down from 74,380 (revised) the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 649,508 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 30,608 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.