Medical personel prepare to conduct COVID-19 swabs at Valley View Health Center Thursday afternoon in Centralia.
As the Washington state Employment Security Department is working to resolve an onslaught of fraudulent claims and payouts filed with the department, it announced last week April’s employment report, which showed the state lost 527,000 jobs throughout the month and that the unemployment rate raised threefold — from 5.1 percent in March to 15.4 percent in April — due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
The national unemployment rate is expected to be at about 14.7 percent. The ESD remains skeptical about the numbers it’s publishing as it has worked to cut off those fraudulent claims and examine the impact.
It’s not known how many of the claims have been related to fraudulent activity, according to a report by The Associated Press. ESD Commissioner Suzi LeVine told the AP that the state is working with federal law enforcement to recover the funds and track down the fraudsters.
“We have also zeroed in on stopping the increase in fraudulent claims we’ve seen in recent weeks. We are working closely with federal law enforcement to stop fraudulent activity, to investigate these crimes and get as much of the stolen money as we can returned to us,” LeVine said in a recent statement.
More than 1.1 million people in the state have filed for unemployment since the coronavirus crisis hit Washington back in early March.
LeVine said she expects to see a continued trend of job loss in May’s report, with a potential shift in the other direction in the following months as Washington begins to reopen its economy.
In Washington state, according to data posted by the Department of Health as of Wednesday, May 20, approximately 19,117 residents have tested positive for the viral disease and 1,044 have died due to related complications.
Lewis County Public Health and Social Services has confirmed 35 total cases of COVID-19 and three deaths, as of information last updated Wednesday, May 20. Lewis County recently was notified by the state Department of Health secretary that the county’s phase 2 variance was accepted and effective immediately.
Similar to the state, the rate of initial claims filed by residents in Lewis County has stayed steady over the last few weeks. During the week of May 10 to 16, approximately 1,103 initial claims were filed with the Employment Security Department. That’s a 15.6-percent increase over the previous week.
Employment sectors that saw the highest increase of initial claims the week of May 10-16 in Lewis County include merchant wholesalers-durable goods, specialty trade contractors, warehousing and storage, administrative and support services, ambulatory health care, food services and drinking establishments, and public administration.
Statewide, Washington residents filed a total 138,733 new initial claims, roughly a 27-percent increase of the last week. The rate of new claims filed week over week has slowed compared with last month’s numbers, but remains consistent and at historic levels.
ESD says it believes “some portion of the high numbers from the past week are due to an increase in fraudulent claims and is looking into how best to correct for that in future reporting cycles.”
The following is a list summary of jobs lost in each industry sector throughout April, according to ESD’s monthly report:
• Leisure and hospitality: 177,700
• Construction: 81,000
• Education and health services: 66,700
• Retail trade: 45,600
• Professional and business services: 35,300
• Other services: 31,200
• Government: 28,500
• Manufacturing: 27,500
• Wholesale trade: 12,700
• Transportation, warehousing and utilities: 9,500
• Financial activities: 7,600
• Information: 3,200
• Mining and logging: 500
Private sector employment decreased by 498,500 and government employment decreased by 28,500, according to ESD.
