OLYMPIA – During the week of November 8- 14, there were 16,837 initial regular unemployment claims (down 33.2 percent from the prior week) and 434,114 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (up 1.2 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 123 percent above last year’s weekly new claims applications.
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation initial claims decreased over the week.
Continued/ongoing claims for regular benefits increased 3.7 percent over the week.
The decrease in initial claims this week was expected. It is connected to a process required by law where some existing claimants must submit a new initial claim to ensure they are receiving benefits from the correct program. This process was a contributing factor to the increase in initial claims in last week’s release. You can learn more about that requirement on our website.
In the week ending November 14, ESD paid out over $128.2 million for 275,893 individual claims. Since the crisis began in March, ESD has paid more than $12.4 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 a monthly basis. You can find detailed claims data anytime on the ESD website.
Below is a thirty-seven-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.
