Here are two charts regardinginitial claims for unemployment insurance by sector in Washington state for the four-week period from July 21 to August 15.

The first chart shows the number of claims by sector.

The five sectors with the greatest number of claims are, in descending order, accommodation and food services; manufacturing; health services and social assistance; retail trade; and construction. Together these five sectors accounted for 59 percent of the initial claims.

The second chart shows for each sector the ratio of July 19 – August 15 initial claims to the number of claims in the corresponding four-week period in 2019 (July 21 – August 17).

For the state economy overall, the ratio 2020 claims to 2019 claims is 4.5. The five sectors with the highest ratios are education services (13.2); arts, entertainment and recreation (11.5); accommodation and food services (9.5): other services (5.8); and government (4.8).