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 weekly unemployment insurance claims data released by ESD have overstated the number of individuals who have truly lost their jobs. ESD has estimated that the value of fraudulent claims is in the $550,000,000 to $650,000,000 range. It is believed that most of the fraudulent claims were filed between May 1 and May 16.

ESD reported a total of 49,477 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the May 31–June 6 week. Of this total, 29,713 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 10,569 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 9,195 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 1,511 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 62,029, down 19,928 from the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is a decrease of 3,290 from the number filed during the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 74,101, down from 97,592 (revised) the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 68,116 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 40,565 from the number for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.