Unemployment Rates Climb

January 15, 2008

As feared, the nation’s unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent in December from 6.8 percent in November. Employers cut 524, 000 jobs in December, and many economists believe the worst is yet to come. The number of unemployed Americans now stands at more than 11 million; the highest since 1993. The employment rate could top 9 percent.

The manufacturing and construction sectors have suffered massive job losses; 800,000 manufacturing jobs and 630,000 construction jobs in 2008.

Although Washington is experiencing lower unemployment rates than the rest of the nation, we have seen a rapid and concerning increase.

(source: Washington Employment Security Department)

Washington’s Unemployment Picture
The latest figures for Washington show a 6.4 percent unemployment rate (224,600 people, November 2008). That’s up from 4.6 percent in November 2007.

In December 2008 more than 90,000 people filed unemployment claims. That was a 75 percent increase over December 2007. The Unemployment Insurance Division of the state Employment Security Department has had to increase staffing levels from 82 intake agents in January to now 160 to respond to questions and process claims.

At the end of 2008, more than 136,000 Washingtonians were receiving unemployment benefits, compared to 72,910 at the end of 2007.

Senate Democrats have made creating jobs our first job this Legislative session. By investing in both talent and infrastructure, we are aiming to create 25,000 jobs in our state.

Unemployment Benefits

Unemployment benefits are paid out of the state’s unemployment-insurance trust fund. Our trust is considered to be one of the healthiest in the country.

By law, the maximum weekly unemployment benefit is $541 and the minimum is $129. The average weekly payment in 2008 was about $350.

Types of Unemployment benefits

• Regular unemployment insurance benefits have a maximum of 26 weeks.
• Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program (EUC) benefits add 13 weeks of benefits but President Bush signed a bill November 21 extending this program. The bill provides for an additional 7 weeks for all the states and another 13 weeks for states that experience a three-month seasonally adjusted total unemployment rate of 6 percent or higher.
• Washington meets that threshold and has disbursed almost $93 million in emergency benefits so far. This program is completely federally funded.
• Total number of benefit weeks: 59

Washington has not employed an additional program called the Extended Benefits Program,which gives eligible workers another 13 weeks of benefits. The EB program will kick in when our seasonally adjusted unemployment rate reaches a three-month average of 6.5 percent or higher and it must be at least 110 percent of that same three-month period average in either of the last two years. The cost of this program is split evenly between the state and federal government.

Eligibility

The public can call 1-877-558-8509 for information about eligibility or visit the Employment Security Department website.