Clark County jobless claims drop by 7 percent last week

Unemployment insurance claims in Clark County dropped again last week, signaling more workers returning from extended unemployment.

The total continued claims, which is the best barometer for the local labor market, fell from 11,334 to 10,545, a drop of 789 claims, or 7 percent.

The change continued the slow decline of claims from the past few months.

Last week “was one of the largest weekly declines in the past year,” said Scott Bailey, regional economist for Southwest Washington. “Hopefully that’s a good sign of people going back to work. It seemed like the decline was pretty evenly distributed between industries, occupation and all three types of continued claims.”

All three types of continued claims (regular, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation) declined by 6 to 7 percent, Bailey said.

The federal unemployment programs end early next month for about 7.5 million Americans, but Washington could choose to fill in some of those benefits through state programs.

“We have the capability of using some recovery money in Washington,” Bailey said. “Especially with infection rates going up so rapidly. People are going to be really leery of going back to work.”

In the state, continued claims fell at a rate similar to that of Clark County at 7 percent to 285,450 claims last week.