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

A note of caution about these numbers: In recent weeks, Washington’s unemployment insurance system has been hit by a rash of fraudulent claims (press releases here and here). As a result, the unemployment insurance claims data released weekly by ESD overstate the number of individuals who have truly lost their jobs. The degree of overstatement is unknown at the present time.

ESD reported a total of 88,806 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the May 10–May 16 week. Of this total, 48,445 initial claims were under the regular unemployment insurance program; 21,250 claims were under the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, which covers self-employed persons, independent contractors and part-time workers; and 19,111 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 90,288 from the number claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of regular initial claims is 99,341, down 22,290 from the preceding week.

The number of initial claims under the two pandemic programs is a decrease of 80,594 from the number filed during the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of regular initial claims was 116,130, down from 140,620 the preceding week.

ESD reports that continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 1,408,785 in the most recent week. This is a decrease of 2,107 from the number reported for the preceding week.

The ESD press release is here.