PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The most recent Washington unemployment claims report saw a spike of nearly 28% from the previous week, according to the Employment Security Department.
For the week of May 10-16, ESD reported 138,733 initial regular unemployment claims and 1,670,580 total claims filed. That shows an increase of 29,308 initial claims and 369,016 total claims filed from the week of March 3-9.
However, the ESD said they believe some portion of these numbers come from fraudulent claims.
Since the virus first began affecting the workforce in early March, a total of 1,937,576 claims have been filed in Washington. The ESD reports that nearly $3.8 billion in benefits has been paid out to Washingtonians.
Nearly 39 million have sought US jobless aid since virus hit
This new unemployment report comes the same day as the United States Department of Labor released their most recent numbers, which shows that the total number of claims filed across America since the virus first hit has reached nearly 39 million.
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