Washington’s Initial jobless claims increase second straight week

OLYMPIA – The number of Washington residents filing for unemployment increased by about 8% last week, the second week in a row the state has seen an increase in initial claims, according to the Employment Security Department.

The total number of unemployment claims was down by about 3% last week, along with Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation initial claims.

The state had seen a steady decrease in initial claims numbers for about four weeks until the 2% increase for the week ending in June 20. At that time, the department said it was too early to tell if the increase was a trend.

Spokane County’s initial claims increased by 11%, from 1,789 to 1,992 during the week ending June 27. This is the second week in a row that Spokane County saw an 11% increase, after seeing a slight decrease the week of June 7-13.

The increase in initial claims is coming from the construction industry and the manufacturing industry, specifically food processing, said Doug Tweedy, Employment Security Department regional economist, on Thursday.

“Initial claims have leveled out,” Tweedy said. “As we go forward, we’ll probably see this trend continuing, but we’re now well below our peak.”

He added the initial claims from the construction and manufacturing industries will likely decrease going forward.

Continued claims decreased by about 4% for the week ending June 27 and about 46% from the peak of the pandemic, Tweedy said.

The slight rise in jobless claims last week for Washington could indicate some sectors, such as accommodation and food services and retail, are experiencing new furloughs or layoffs, Commissioner Suzi LeVine said Thursday in a press release.

The number of initial unemployment claims was 31,911 for the week ending June 27, up from 29,612 the week prior, but the number of total claims decreased to 696,272 from 718,615 last week.

“New unemployment claims, while down significantly from the peak of the crisis, remain at record-high levels,” LeVine said in the press release.

About 1.2 million individuals have filed for unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the week ending March 7, the Employment Security Department has paid out more than $6.7 billion in benefits.

Retail, construction, and accommodation and food trade were among the industries seeing the biggest increase in the number of initial claims.