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.
| Unemployment claim type | Week ofDecember 6-December 12 | Week ofNovember 29-December 5 | Week ofNovember 22-November 28 |
| Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) initial claims | 19,547 | 24,587 | 22,334 |
| Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims | 4,061 | 3,759 | 3,302 |
| Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims | 12,775 | 11,043 | 7,082 |
| Continued/ongoing weekly claims | 454,878 | 453,144 | 426,963 |
| Total claims | 491,261 | 492,533 | 459,681 |
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