Washington state saw a sharp decline in new unemployment claims last week, but the total number of people without a job is still roughly 50% higher than before the pandemic.
Washingtonians filed 22,334 new, or "initial," claims for regular unemployment benefits last week, a 26.2% decrease over the prior week, the state Employment Security Department (ESD) reported Thursday.
Nationally, initial claims fell last week by 9.5%, to 712,000, compared with a week earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday.
In a statement Thursday, ESD said last week's decline in new state claims may reflect the job market's adjustment to new business restrictions ordered Nov. 15 by Gov. Jay Inslee to curb a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Those orders were followed by a large increase in new jobless claims, especially in sectors, such as food service, most directly affected by the restrictions. Last week's decline "indicates those impacts have leveled out," the ESD said.
Even with the decline in new weekly claims, however, the state's job market remains heavily affected by the pandemic. The number of Washingtonians collecting unemployment benefits last week rose 1.1%, to 280,278, compared to a week earlier, the ESD reported.
Six percent of the state resident civilian workforce of 3.9 million was unemployed in October, the most recent month for which state data is available. That's around 50% more than were unemployed in October 2019.
Some Washingtonians also are still seeing delays in receiving unemployment benefits.
As of last week, 27,808 claimants were not receiving benefits and were waiting for the ESD to resolve a question with their claim, the agency reported. That was an increase of 22.2% from the prior week. The average time needed to resolve delayed claims was 9.7 weeks, up modestly from the week before.
Since March 8, the ESD has paid out $12.6 billion in benefits, roughly two-thirds of it from federal funds, to about 1.08 million individuals.
But Washingtonians who are now receiving federal benefits under last spring's pandemic relief legislation could see those benefits stop by year's end unless Congress extends the programs.
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