Washington lost 527,000 net jobs from March to April. The state’s unemployment rate in April was 15.4 percent (up from 5.1 percent in March). Kriss expects that next month’s monthly employment report (covering May employment) will show another drop in jobs.

Nationwide, initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) were down for the week ending May 16. Initial and continuing claims in Washington, however, were up. With a big increase in claims for the week ending May 16, the education services sector has now seen the highest number of total claims relative to February employment.

But given the high level of fraud that has been reported, the claims data for Washington overstates the number of people who have lost their jobs. According to the Seattle Times, “hundreds of millions of dollars” have been stolen. The Employment Security Department (ESD) has not said how overstated the claims data is; the Seattle Times reports that it could be “months before the full scope can be known.” (Contributing to the fraud: The elimination of the waiting period has meant that ESD has less time to verify claims.)