OLYMPIA – During the week of December 6 – December 12, there were 19,547 initial regular unemployment claims (down 20.5 percent from the prior week) and 491,261 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (down 0.3 percent from the prior week) filed by Washingtonians, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD).
Initial regular claims applications remain at elevated levels and are at 168 percent above last year’s weekly new claims applications.
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims and continued/ongoing claims for regular benefits all increased over the week.
Decreases in regular initial claims over the week occurred across most industry sectors with the largest decreases over the week occurring in the Accommodation and food services (-1,585) and Construction (-1,284) industry sectors.
In the week ending December 12, ESD paid out over $145 million for 300,225 individual claims. Since the crisis began in March, ESD has paid more than $12.9 billion in benefits to over a million Washingtonians.
For more information on current claimants and claims processing progress, please go to the benefits data dashboard on the ESD website.
Note: Detailed claims data and charts by county, industry and occupation will be included in this release on the first Thursday of every month. You can find detailed claims data anytime on the ESD website.
Below is a forty-one week summary of statewide initial claims filed since the start of the COVID-19 crisis:
For complete information of weekly initial claims by industry sector and county for the year to date, also check the weekly unemployment initial claims charts compiled by ESD’s Labor Market & Economic Analysis division. For more information about specific counties, contact one of ESD’s regional local economists.
ESD will send out the next weekly new claims press release on Thursday, December 24, 2020 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
