Number of unemployment claims continued to climb for week ending on April 4

Posted

The Washington state Employment Security Department saw 170,063 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week of March 29 through April 4, marking the third week in a row that more than 100,000 initial claims have been filed statewide. This comes as state-mandated business closures due to the coronavirus crisis have significantly weakened the economy.

Unlike some other counties, the number of new claims in Clark County hasn’t decreased from the initial wave of claims in the week prior.

Initial claims for the week jumped 8.28 percent to 9,378. The week before, claims soared to 8,661 amid further state-mandated business closures.

The number of claims remains historic, Employment Security said in a Thursday report, adding that the state department has paid out nearly $150 million in benefits to Washingtonians since the start of the crisis.

Roughly $79.4 million — more than half — of those payout benefits occurred during the week ending on April 4.

Employment Security Department Commissioner Suzi LeVine said in a statement that it remains critical that people stay home and stay healthy. This 6.5-percent decrease from last week’s report does not yet suggest a trend, she said.

“As our ESD Team works round the clock to make it easier for Washingtonians to apply for unemployment benefits in addition to implementing the new federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, which will increase the number of workers who are eligible for unemployment benefits, we expect to see a new surge of claims in the coming weeks,” LeVine said.

Statewide, the number of claims ending in the week of April 4 saw a 2,627-percent increase year over year and was seven times more than the peak week during the Great Recession, which saw 26,075 weekly initial claims, the report says.

During the week of March 29 through April 4, Gov. Jay Inslee extended the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order through May 4, announced the utilization of the state’s Department of Financial Institutions to work with distressed homeowners struggling to pay their mortgage, and announced a $445 million trim to the state’s budgets over the next three years.



“We have taken dozens of steps under my emergency powers to help people in this time -- including moratoriums on evictions, mortgage forbearance, utility ratepayer assistance, unemployment extensions, flexibility on tax payments and cash assistance to families,” Inslee said in a statement on the stay home order extension. “We will do more.”

In total, Inslee vetoed 147 separate expenditure items from the state budget that the Office of the Governor has called “less-urgent increases, including funding for new or expanded programs and services.”

The largest number of initial claims came from the construction, retail trade, health care and social assistance, and food services and accommodation industries.

The construction sector saw the largest portion, with 24,394 initial claims during the week ending on April 4, though that number is down by more than 3,600 from the week prior.

Retail trade, which saw 20,508 new initial claims, also saw a decrease of about 1,500 from the week prior, but made up a good portion of total new claims.

Industries that saw the greatest percentage increases include management of companies and enterprises sector; mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; transportation and warehousing; and arts, entertainment and recreation industries.

Transportation saw 4,625 new claims the week ending on April 4, up about 27 percent from the previous week. The arts industries are up about 25 percent, with 6,762 new claims, and wholesale trade rose by 15 percent to 6,008 claims.

For more information from the Employment Security Department, or to file a claim for unemployment insurance, visit www.esd.wa.gov.