How many people are on unemployment in Washington - crazy numbers right now

From what I've seen in the news, Washington typically has around 150,000-200,000 people on regular UI benefits during normal times, but it can spike way higher during economic downturns. The pandemic years were insane - we had over 600,000 people on unemployment at the peak.

The Washington ESD publishes monthly statistics but they're usually a few months behind. Last I checked we were sitting around 180,000 regular UI claimants plus people on standby and other programs. The adjudication backlog is a separate issue - that's more about staffing than total numbers.

If you're having trouble reaching Washington ESD by phone, I had success using Claimyr (claimyr.com). They help you get through to an actual agent instead of waiting on hold forever. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ that shows how it works. Saved me hours of calling.

honestly the numbers dont matter as much as the fact that washington esd is just understaffed. my cousin works there and she says they have way fewer people processing claims than they need. even if there were only 50k people on unemployment theyd still be behind

I think we're at around 4-5% unemployment rate in Washington right now which translates to maybe 200,000+ people actively looking for work. Not all of them qualify for UI benefits though - some exhausted their benefits, some don't meet the work history requirements, etc.

The real problem is seasonal spikes. Like right now we're heading into winter so construction and outdoor work slows down, tourism drops off, retail starts laying people off after the holidays. Washington ESD gets hit with waves of new claims that overwhelm their system.

Does anyone know how many people are specifically in adjudication right now? That seems like the bigger issue than total unemployment numbers. My claim sat there for 6 weeks before I finally got it resolved.

The numbers fluctuate a lot based on economic conditions. During the 2008 recession Washington had over 300,000 people on unemployment. Right now we're in a relatively stable period but still dealing with post-pandemic system issues.

just looked it up and washington state has about 3.8 million people in the labor force. if unemployment is around 4% thats like 150k people unemployed. but not all unemployed people get benefits so maybe 100-120k actually collecting UI?

WASHINGTON ESD NEEDS TO HIRE MORE PEOPLE!!! I don't care if there are 50,000 or 500,000 people on unemployment - the wait times are RIDICULOUS. I've been calling every day for 3 weeks and haven't talked to a human being once.

My understanding is that Washington typically runs around 150k-200k people on regular UI, plus another 50k or so on standby, plus people doing job searches through WorkSource. The total numbers aren't that crazy but the system just can't handle even normal volumes efficiently.

The weekly claim filing probably gives you a better sense of active users. Every Thursday you've got hundreds of thousands of people trying to file their weekly claims online. That's when the website gets slowest.

You know what would help? If Washington ESD actually answered their phones instead of hanging up on people after 2 hours on hold. The number of people wouldn't matter if they had decent customer service.

i think the real number is closer to 250k when you count everyone - regular ui, standby, people in job training programs, people appealing decisions, etc. its a lot of people hitting the same system

From my experience the actual number doesn't matter as much as when you call. Early morning (like 7:30 AM) is your best bet for getting through. Most people don't call that early.

Look at it this way - Washington state has almost 8 million people. If even 2-3% of the population is on unemployment at any given time, that's 160,000-240,000 people. Add in family members calling on their behalf and you've got huge call volume.

The adjudication backlog is the real killer. Doesn't matter if there are 100k or 500k people total - if 30,000 of them are stuck in adjudication that creates a massive phone queue of people trying to get status updates.

Bottom line - there are enough people on unemployment in Washington to overwhelm the current system capacity. Whether it's 150k or 300k doesn't change the fact that Washington ESD needs better infrastructure and more staff to handle the load.

just my 2 cents but i think we focus too much on the numbers and not enough on solutions. services like claimyr show there are ways to work around the broken phone system until washington esd fixes it