New jobless claims in the state continued to trend downward last week, marking the fourth consecutive week of declines, according to the Washington State Employment Security Department.
Laid-off workers in the state filed 16,102 new jobless claims Jan. 24-30, a 2.2% decrease compared with the week prior, the department reported Thursday.
Continued claims in all unemployment categories rose slightly last week with 489,741 benefit applications filed in the week ending Jan. 30, a 1.6% increase from the week before.
Pandemic Unemployment Compensation claims accounted for the increase in continued claims last week, the ESD said.
Workers in the construction sector filed the greatest number of new claims last week
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