WA ongoing unemployment claims up by 20% as state grapples with backlog

Ongoing unemployment claims in Washington state are 20% higher compared with this time last year, according to the Employment Security Department.

A growing backlog has prompted the state agency to change up its unemployment benefits call center hours via a new 90-day pilot so that representatives can process claims, ESD officials told reporters Monday.

October to March marks the busiest time of year for unemployment, as seasonal workers – including those in the agricultural and construction sectors – are laid off temporarily. But an increase in backlogged claims has led the department to devote the call center’s Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to focus on that work.

“We don’t have the budget for overtime or additional hiring,” said Employment Security Commissioner Cami Feek. “We believe the 90-day pilot to adjust our call center hours will move the needle, and we’ve seen that in other states.”

Massachusetts is wrapping up its own pilot, she added, and that state has witnessed a 43% drop in their claims backlog as a result.

This comes as the federal government shutdown enters its fifth week. And nearly half of U.S. states are effectively in a recession, including Washington, Forbes reported earlier this month.

Feek was joined Monday by Director of Insurance Services JR Richards and Chief Labor Economist Anneliese Vance-Sherman to talk about the federal government shutdown, the updated call center hours and ballooning demand for unemployment benefits.

Richards said ongoing unemployment claims – the category that saw the 20% hike – means that those coming onto unemployment insurance are staying on longer. As for initial claims, she estimates that there has been an 8% increase year-over-year, “which is still a rise.”

Last week, ESD held its first webinar for workers and others affected by the shutdown, including federally funded state employees. Feek counted 489 attendees, noting that another webinar is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 30.

Since the beginning of the month, when the shutdown began, some 1,937 federal workers in Washington state have filed for unemployment benefits, Richards said, calling it a “significant” year-over-year rise in claims, albeit in-line with past shutdowns.

Washington is home to more than 79,500 federal workers, according to ESD.

As for how today’s ongoing claim rate compares to that from the start of the pandemic?

“I don’t think it compares in that our unemployment rate and that volume increased at such a rapid rate during the pandemic,” Feek said, adding: “For perspective, during the pandemic in an 18-month period, we did the equivalent of the prior 18 years worth of claims volume.”

That amounted to essentially 1 in 3 workers in the state, simultaneously becoming unemployed, she said.

Today the state is seeing that the ongoing unemployment claim rate is staying up: People are having more difficulty finding a job, she said. But the overall claim volumes coming in haven’t spiked at the same level as the pandemic.

Vance-Sherman compared today’s unemployment insurance claim levels to those of 2015-16, when the state was coming down from the Great Recession but prior to hitting the low points, just prior to the pandemic, of a healthy economy.

She noted that the state is still seeing a steady unemployment rate in the mid-4% range, but there’s been an overall slowdown of jobs being created.

“We’re kind of reaching a little bit of a doldrums with a lot of the traditional labor market indicators,” Vance-Sherman said. “But claims is one that we have a unique view on and that is showing some rising distress.”