Jobless claims decline in Spokane County, state

New jobless claims in Spokane County declined last week, ending four consecutive weeks of increases, according to data from the Washington state Employment Security Department.

Laid-off workers in the county filed 368 new claims in the week ending Aug. 28, compared with 402 claims filed the week before, for an 8.4% decrease, the department reported Thursday.

New unemployment claims in the state decreased to 5,073 in the week ending Aug. 28, a 5.3% drop in applications compared with 5,357 in the week before, according to the ESD.Continued claims in all unemployment categories decreased 1% with 272,845 applications filed last week.

Decreases in layoffs in health care and social assistance, and wholesale-and-retail trade contributed to a drop of 84 new claims in the state in the week ending Aug. 28.