During the week of June 20 – June 26, there were 7,505 initial regular unemployment claims (down 0.5 percent from the prior week) and 368,956 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (down 1.6 percent from the prior week) filed by Washingtonians, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD).
- Initial regular claims applications are now 76 percent below weekly new claims applications during the same period last year during the pandemic.
- The 4-week moving average for initial claims remains elevated at 7,702 (as compared to the 4-week moving average of initial claims pre-pandemic of 6,071 initial claims). Unemployment initial claims for regular benefits are currently 27 percent higher than their pre-pandemic average.
- Initial claims applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) increased slightly over the week.
- Initial claims applications for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) and continued/ongoing claims for all benefits decreased over the week.
- Decreases in layoffs in Retail Trade and Health Care and Social Assistance contributed to the decrease in regular initial claims last week.
In the week ending June 26, ESD paid out over $205 million for 260,138 individual claims. Since the crisis began in March 2020, ESD has paid more than $19.4 billion in benefits to over a million Washingtonians.
| Unemployment claim type | June 20-26 | June 13-19 | June 6-12 |
| Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) initial claims | 7,505 | 7,544 | 6,892 |
| Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims | 1,663 | 1,581 | 1,468 |
| Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims | 1,233 | 1,455 | 1,828 |
| Continued/ongoing weekly claims | 358,555 | 364,230 | 373,588 |
| Total claims | 368,956 | 374,810 | 383,776 |
