More than 1 in 5 workers in Washington have now sought unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic as the state continues to slide into one of the deepest economic downturns on record.

That’s according to a Thursday story from our online news partner The Seattle Times, which noted that on Thursday, the state Employment Security Department (ESD) reported 137,605 initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending April 25. The latest batch of claims brings the total number of workers who have filed for unemployment insurance since March 7 to 787,533, or more than two-and-a-half times the peak during the Great Recession,The Times said.

It also highlights the enormous sums of state and federal money that are flowing to workers — nearly $1 billion last week alone —” by far, the largest week of unemployment benefits delivered in our state’s history,” said department commissioner Suzi LeVine in a statement Thursday morning.

But it also underscored the difficulties that tens of thousands of workers are still having in accessing some of those funds. Of those who’ve filed for unemployment insurance since March 7, almost 36% have not yet been paid benefits.

During a news conference Tuesday, LeVine said the department is “keenly aware of” those problems and is working hard to resolve them.

You can read more in The Times story here.

According to the ESD, since the week ending March 7 when COVID-19 job losses began:

• A total of 787,533 distinct individuals have filed for unemployment insurance
• ESD has paid out nearly $1.5 billion in benefits to Washingtonians
• 504,284 individuals who have filed an initial claim since the pandemic began have been paid

Below is an eight-week summary of statewide initial claims filed since the start of the COVID-19 crisis:

Weekly data breakdown

By industry

Industry sectors experiencing the highest number of initial claims during April 19-25 were:

• Healthcare and social assistance: 11,061 initial claims, up 1,927 initial claims from the previous week
• Retail trade: 10,397 initial claims, up 912 initial claims from previous week
• Accommodation and food services: 10,049 initial claims, up 2,381 initial claims from previous week
• Construction: 6,047 initial claims, down 695 initial claims from the previous week
• Manufacturing: 6,045 initial claims, down 2,290 initial claims from the previous week

By county

King County, the most populous in the state saw initial claims increase from 24,461 to 40,088 during the week of April 19-April 25, up 63 percent from the week before.

Other counties with the largest number of initial claims during the week were:

• Pierce County: Initial claims filed increased from 11,016 to 16,680 up 51 percent from the week before.
• Snohomish County: Initial claims filed increased from 10,958 to 15,122 up 38 percent from the week before.
• Spokane County: Initial claims filed increased from 5,069 to 7,794 up 54 percent from the week before.
• Clark County: Initial claims filed increased from 3,707 to 6,292 up 70 percent from the week before.

Demographic breakdown 

During the week of April 19-25:

• By gender: 51.4 percent (65,904) of the initial claims were filed by females while 48.2 percent (61,808) were filed by males.
• By age group: 20.5 percent (28,174) of initial claims were filed by the 35-44 year old age group, followed by 20.2 percent (27,863) by the 25-34 year old age group and 18.4 percent (25,355) by the 45-54 year old age group.
• By race/ethnicity: 59.9 percent (82,382) of initial claims were filed by Caucasians, followed by 10.3 percent (14,549) filed by Asian Americans and 4.9 percent filed by African Americans.
• By disability status: 2.5 percent (3,193) of initial regular claims were from individuals identified as having a disability, including 0.9 percent (1,167) who identified themselves as disabled veterans.
• By veterans status: 4.5 percent (5,809) of initial regular claims were filed by veterans, with an additional 644 initial regular claims from individuals eligible for veterans benefits due to family relations with a veteran