Washington totals have reached nearly 600,000 in need of unemployment benefits, the state reports:

During the week of April 5-11, there were 143,241 initial and 585,983 total claims for unemployment benefits, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD). While initial claims declined 16% from the previous week, it was still the third highest weekly number on record and five times more claims than the peak week during the Great Recession. Total weekly claims are now the highest on record.

Washington’s Employment Security Department says it paid out $125.9 million to 265,798 unemployed workers the week of April 5th, a $45.6 million increase from the previous week. “Since the start of COVID-19 job losses the week ending March 7th, the department has paid out nearly $272 million in benefits to Washingtonians,” the update reads.

There was some good news for the state’s largest county. Seattle’s King County saw initial claims decrease from 47,233 to 39,796 during the week of April 5th, a 16% drop after three weeks of surging claims.

Industry totals

Industry sectors experiencing the highest number of initial claims during April 5-11 were:

• Manufacturing: 33,337 initial claims, up 20,364 initial claims from previous week
• Construction: 17,291 initial claims, down 7,103 initial claims from the previous week
• Retail trade: 15,911 initial claims, down 4,597 initial claims from previous week
• Health care and social assistance: 12,783 initial claims, down 6,679 initial claims from previous week
• Accommodation and food services: 11,233 initial claims, down 6,784 initial claims from previous week

Industry sectors experiencing the highest percentage increase of initial claims during April 5th-April 11th were:

• Manufacturing: 33,337 initial claims, up 157 percent from the previous week.
• Public administration: 1,840 initial claims, up 69 percent from the previous week

The federal CARES act has expanded eligibility for unemployment assistance, increased the weekly benefit amount by $600, and extended the time available for unemployment assistance by 13 weeks.

Saturday, the state’s filing system was updated to meet the new federal standards including allowing self-employed workers, independent contractors and “other workers who are not traditionally eligible will now be able to apply for unemployment benefits” to file.

“As a result, we expect to see an even larger surge of claims in the coming weeks,” the state’s ESD says.

With high demand and changing systems making it difficult to file, Working Washington is collecting details of what is going wrong. You can help by adding details from your experience to the Unemployment Review crowdsourcing effort.

State officials, meanwhile, are trying to ease anxieties. Eligible workers will be paid “retroactive to their date of eligibility,” the state says.

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