Initial jobless claims up slightly in Clark County

Initial unemployment insurance claims rose in Clark County by nearly 2 percent last week, from 1,336 to 1,357 claims, continuing a trend of rising jobless claims.

“On one hand it’s small, but it’s two weeks in a row that it’s been up,” said Scott Bailey, regional economist for Southwest Washington. “The virus isn’t going away, which means the economy isn’t going to get better soon.”

On the other hand, Clark County’s continued unemployment claims fell by about 6 percent, or 951 claims last week. The total number of continued claims sat at 14,985 last week.

“We have more people claiming (unemployment insurance) this week than last,” said Bailey. “Not a huge change, but a bit more joblessness this last week.”

Washington was up 7.8 percent in initial unemployment claims last week for a total of 31,911 claims.

The Employment Security Department paid about $477.3 million for 394,910 individual claims last week. It was a decrease of $55.5 million and 15,942 fewer individual claims from the prior week, according to an ESD news release on Thursday.