Unemployment claims show Clark County job market slowly recovering

Continued unemployment insurance claims in Clark County show a job market that is slowly recovering.

Last week saw 6,118 continued regular claims, down from 6,370 the week before. Extended benefits in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance category rose slightly, but the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation claims fell; the total for all continued claims fell by 200 last week.

Regular initial claims dropped by 30 claims and now sit at 625; Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation initial claims also fell by more than 30 each.

“All three categories declined over the week,” said Scott Bailey, regional economist for Southwest Washington. “We were in a holding pattern where we were yo-yoing between 800 and 1,100. Two weeks ago, that dropped to 656 claims.

“Regular initials were at 230 last year at this time,” Bailey said. “It’s still more than twice as many.”

All industries reported fewer regular continued claims except government administration, which increased from 55 to 133.

The state paid out about $28 million to Clark County residents in October, which was down from $59 million in September, Bailey said. Much of that was because of the federal Lost Wages Assistance program, which gave claimants $300. That program has since ended.

In Washington as a whole, initial regular unemployment claims rose by 3.4 percent last week to 14,681, according to the Washington Employment Security Department. The state reported 465,563 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories, down 2.1 percent from the prior week.