During the week of April 4 – April 10, there were 17,281 initial regular unemployment claims (up 45.7 percent from the prior week) and 428,521 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (up 0.4 percent from the prior week) filed by Washingtonians, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD).
- The increase in initial claims was partly driven by claimants that have reached the end of their benefit year. For those that applied for unemployment early in the pandemic, they have reached the end of their 52-week benefit year and must reapply for unemployment to continue receiving benefits.
- Initial regular claims applications are now 88 percent below weekly new claims applications during the same period last year during the pandemic.
- The 4-week moving average for initial claims remain elevated at 12,999 (as compared to the 4-week moving average of initial claims pre-pandemic of 6,071 initial claims) and remains at similar levels of initial claims filed during the Great Recession.
- Increases in layoffs in the Health Care and Social Assistance; Manufacturing; Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting sectors also contributed to the increase in regular initial claims last week.
- Initial claims applications for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Assistance (PEUC) as well as continued claims for regular benefits decreased over the week while initial claims applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) increased slightly over the week.
In the week ending April 10, ESD paid out over $233 million for 300,117 individual claims. Since the crisis began in March 2020, ESD has paid more than $16.8 billion in benefits to over a million Washingtonians.
| Unemployment claim type | Week ofApril 4- April 10 | Week ofMarch 28- April 3 | Week ofMarch 21- March 27 |
| Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) initial claims | 17,281 | 11,863 | 11,455 |
| Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims | 2,249 | 2,102 | 2,384 |
| Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims | 2,792 | 2,934 | 3,173 |
| Continued/ongoing weekly claims | 406,199 | 409,904 | 413,065 |
| Total claims | 428,521 | 426,803 | 430,077 |
Note: You can find detailed claims data anytime on the ESD website.
