New jobless claims rise slightly in Spokane County last week

Although new jobless claims in Spokane County increased slightly last week, applications approached pre-pandemic levels.

Laid-off workers in the county filed 489 claims in the week ending June 26, a 15% increase compared with 425 filed the week prior, according to data from the Washington state Employment Security Department.

For comparison, jobless claims in the county totaled 466 the first week of March 2020 – right before the pandemic took hold in the state.

State jobless claims dropped to 7,505 in the week ending June 26, a 0.5% decrease compared with 7,544 the week prior, the department reported Thursday.

Continued claims in all unemployment categories decreased 1.6% with 368, 956 applications filed the week ending June 26.

The ESD paid more than $205 million in benefits last week

- Amy Edelen