A press release from Washington State Employment Security Office.
During the week of August 15 to 21, there were 5,357 initial regular unemployment claims, down 3.1 percent from the prior week. Total claims filed by Washingtonians for all unemployment benefit categories numbered 275,558, down 3.5 percent from the prior week.
- Initial regular claims applications are 71 percent below weekly new claims applications for the same period last year during the pandemic.
- The 4-week moving average for regular initial claims was 5,306, an increase of 201 from the previous week’s 4-week moving average. During the same time in 2019, it was 5,194.
- Decreases in layoffs in agriculture and construction contributed to a decrease of 171 regular initial claims over the previous week.
- There was a decrease in the combined total of initial claims and continued or ongoing claims for all benefits—which include regular unemployment insurance, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC).
- Federal pandemic benefits programs, including PUA and PEUC as well as the additional $300 per week, are set to expire the week ending Sept. 4, 2021. Learn more at esd.wa.gov/covid-19.
In the week ending August 21, ESD paid out over $164 million for 204,343 individual claims. Since the crisis began in March 2020, ESD has paid more than $20.9 billion in benefits to over 1.1 million Washingtonians.
| Unemployment claim type | Aug. 15-21 | Aug. 8-14 | Aug. 1-7 |
| Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) initial claims | 5,357 | 5,528 | 5,420 |
| Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims | 1,369 | 1,509 | 1,615 |
| Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims | 534 | 427 | 464 |
| Continued or ongoing weekly claims | 268,118 | 277,986 | 299,359 |
| Total claims | 275,558 | 285,450 | 306,858 |
Note: You can find detailed claims data anytime on the ESD website.
