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

ESD reported a total of 6,708 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending July 31. Of this total, 4,919 initial claims were filed under the regular state unemployment insurance program; 1,337 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 452 claims were filed under the federal pandemic unemployment compensation program, which adds 13 weeks to the maximum term of benefits.

The number of new claims for regular unemployment insurance is an increase of 365 from the number of claims filed during the preceding week. ESD notes:

Initial regular claims applications are now 80 percent below weekly new claims applications for the same period last year during the pandemic.

The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 5,006 down 251 from the preceding week. I estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 6,051, down from 6,206 (revised) the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two federal pandemic programs is a decrease of 51 from the number filed during the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 301,558 in the most recent week. This is 3,145 less than the number reported last week.

The ESD press release is posted here.