Washington Employment Security Commissioner Suzi LeVine speaks at a news conference in April.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell by about 13.4 percent statewide but only fell by about four claims in Lewis County the week of July 26 through Aug. 1, according to new numbers out Thursday by the state Employment Security Department.
A total of 243 initial claims were made in Lewis County that week compared with 247 the week before. A total 24,985 claims were made that week statewide.
Though the number of both regular and initial unemployment claims continue to decline and are down significantly compared with three months ago, they remain at historically elevated levels — about 346 percent higher than last year’s weekly count of initial claims.
The state processed a total 620,263 ongoing claims that week, too.
The Employment Security Department also recently cleared a three-month backlog of initial applications, the deadline of which had been pushed back on two occasions. The total number of claims resolved topped more than 81,000.
“Meeting this Operation 100 Percent milestone cleared a significant part of the backlog and also allowed us to address thousands of other claims that were not in that group, but were addressed in our bulk action,” Employment Security Department Commissioner Suzi LeVine said during an Aug. 3 press conference, adding that the work they did in July allowed the department to gain some much-needed momentum.
The department’s ability to consistently clear initial applications for unemployment benefits was mired earlier this year due to an overflow of applications caused by the coronavirus recession and an international scamming operation that siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state agency and Washingtonians that need those the most.
As the department heads into the second half of 2020, LeVine said their goal is to continue serving the public in a fast and sustainable manner. She said she knows that while they’ve made significant progress, her department’s work has only begun.
“We don’t know what this crisis has in store for us next, or this virus. We do know that economic and employment insecurity will continue with us for the near future, and our role at the Employment Security Department is to provide a counterbalance to that uncertainty through acceptable unemployment benefits, reemployment services and support for businesses so they may retain or obtain a skilled workforce,” she said.
During her press conference, LeVine also gave updated details on what the department knows about the fraudulent attack. It’s estimated that about 86,400 fraudulent claims were compensated to the tune of $576 million. LeVine said that, while these numbers are subject to change as they learn more, they’ve narrowed on those claims through “a number of key factors.”
Conversely, ESD was also able to recover more than $340 million and plans to pursue the other fraudulent payments.
“Because of our efforts and partnerships with the banks and law enforcement, we’ve been able to reduce the losses dramatically,” LeVine said. “Nearly 60 percent of what went out we have recovered.”
LeVine said that their escalated efforts to filter out fraudulent applications, which included a temporary pause on weekly benefits back in May, were able to ensure that another $200 million in benefits wasn’t sent to fraudulent claims during that time.
LeVine said that the criminals could have siphoned off upwards of $4 billion if they had received full benefits over the full 26 weeks.
There are currently about 30,000 claims that currently remain unpaid, either due to needed application resolution by the individual or needed process by ESD.
A total of 2.33 million initial claims for unemployment insurance have been filed since the start of the pandemic, and ESD has paid out more than $9.2 billion. The industries that saw the largest share of total initial claims made July 26 through Aug. 1 include manufacturing, retail, health care and social assistance, and accommodation and food services.
