During the week of January 3-9, there were 27,147 initial regular unemployment claims (down 8.4 percent from the prior week) and 515,561 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (down 7.5 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 203 percent above last year’s weekly new claims applications.
- Initial claims for regular unemployment, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), and continued/ongoing claims for regular benefits all decreased over the week.
- Reductions in seasonal layoffs in construction and agriculture drove a decrease in new regular jobless claims last week. Regular initial claims in the construction sector decreased by 1,742 over the week to 3,199 total regular initial claims, while initial claims in the Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector decreased by 422 over the week to 739 initial claims.
In the week ending January 9, ESD paid out over $146.8 million for 310,021 individual claims. Since the crisis began in March, ESD has paid more than $13.5 billion in benefits to over a million Washingtonians.
| Unemployment claim type | Week ofJanuary 3- January 9 | Week ofDecember 27-January 2 | Week ofDecember 20-December 26 |
| Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) initial claims | 27,147 | 29,651 | 19,192 |
| Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims | 5,220 | 5,818 | 3,918 |
| Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims | 9,580 | 42,595 | 14,127 |
| Continued/ongoing weekly claims | 473,614 | 479,355 | 460,133 |
| Total claims | 515,561 | 557,419 | 497,370 |
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.