A press release from Washington State Employment Security Department.
During the week of August 29 to September 4, there were 5,205 initial regular unemployment claims, up 2.6 percent from the prior week. Total claims filed by Washingtonians for all unemployment benefit categories numbered 257,702, down 5.6 percent from the prior week.
- Initial regular claims applications are 74 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 5,291, a decrease of 54 from the previous week’s 4-week moving average. During the same time in 2019, it was 4,918.
- Increases in layoffs in health care and social assistance and construction contributed to an increase of 132 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, expired the week ending Sept. 4, 2021. Learn more at esd.wa.gov/covid-19.
In the week ending September 4, ESD paid out over $166 million for 197,660 individual claims. Since the crisis began in March 2020, ESD has paid more than $21.2 billion in benefits to over 1.1 million Washingtonians.
| Unemployment claim type | Aug. 29- Sept. 4 | Aug. 22-28 | Aug. 15-21 |
| Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) initial claims | 5,205 | 5,073 | 5,357 |
| Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims | 1,417 | 1,503 | 1,369 |
| Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims | 1,503 | 617 | 534 |
| Continued or ongoing weekly claims | 250,510 | 265,652 | 268,118 |
| Total claims | 257,702 | 272,845 | 275,558 |
Note: You can find detailed claims data anytime on the ESD website.
