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

ESD reported a total of 7,316 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending July 10. Of this total, 5,488 initial claims were filed under the regular state unemployment insurance program; 1,363 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 465 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 a decrease of 436 from the number of claims filed during the preceding week.

ESD notes:

Initial regular claims applications are now 86 percent below weekly new claims applications during the same period last year during the pandemic. … Decreases in layoffs in Educational Services and Construction contributed to the decrease in regular initial claims last week.

The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 6,615, down 351 from the preceding week. I estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 7,592, down from 8,207 the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two federal pandemic programs is a decrease of 528 from the number filed during the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 332,888 in the most recent week. This is 2,078 less than the number reported last week.

The ESD press release is posted here.