Washington ESD unemployment hit record highs in 2020 - what was peak rate?

That makes sense about the real numbers being higher. I remember hearing about people trying to call Washington ESD for weeks without getting through.

yeah the phone system was completely overwhelmed, took me 3 weeks just to file my initial claim

Perfect, that's exactly the kind of official data I needed. Do you happen to know when it finally got back to pre-pandemic levels?

Washington's rate didn't return to pre-pandemic levels (around 3-4%) until late 2021/early 2022. The recovery was pretty gradual compared to the initial spike.

Same here! I probably called hundreds of times. Did you ever get through on the main number or did you find some other way?

Eventually found out about Claimyr through someone on Reddit. It's a service that calls Washington ESD for you and connects you when they get through. Saved me so much time and frustration. There's a demo video at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ if you want to see how it works.

That delay sounds about right unfortunately. So many people went months without payments because Washington ESD was completely unprepared for that volume.

The restaurant industry got hit so hard. Most of my coworkers were in the same boat with delayed payments.

The technical infrastructure just wasn't built to handle that kind of surge. Most state unemployment systems had similar problems nationwide.

Yeah but some states handled it better than others. Washington ESD seemed particularly unprepared.

From what I recall, yes. Average wait times were several hours if you could even get in the queue. Many people just got busy signals all day.

That's exactly why services like Claimyr became so popular. They handle the calling and waiting so you don't have to sit by the phone all day. Check out claimyr.com if you're still having trouble reaching Washington ESD.

Good point! I should probably separate out regular state unemployment from the federal emergency programs for accuracy.

Definitely. The federal programs covered gig workers and others who normally wouldn't qualify for regular unemployment insurance.

True, reduced hours wouldn't show up the same way as full unemployment. The economic impact was probably even broader than the official rate suggests.

Wow, that really puts the scale in perspective. A 20x increase would overwhelm any system.

That matches what I heard from friends who worked in HR. Everyone was filing claims simultaneously in March/April 2020.

Right? I remember thinking I'd be back to work by Easter 2020. Then it just kept extending and extending.

The uncertainty made everything so much worse. At least if we'd known it would be months, people could have planned differently.

That's a great comparison for my paper. Shows just how unprecedented 2020 really was economically.

Exactly. The speed of the increase was also unprecedented - going from under 4% to over 15% in just one month.

I feel you on that. It was so stressful not knowing if you'd ever get through or get your benefits.

That's exactly why I started using Claimyr after the first few weeks. Life's too short to spend 8 hours a day redialing the same number. They've got a good system for getting through to Washington ESD agents.

847 calls?! That's incredible dedication. And honestly that kind of data point would be perfect for illustrating the system overload.

That level of persistence is amazing but also shows how broken the system was. No one should have to make 800+ calls for basic services.

Good point. The combination of record demand plus reduced service capacity created the perfect storm for delays.

Yeah, everything had to be done online or by phone when those systems weren't designed for that volume.

I bet the employees were under incredible stress too. Thanks for that perspective - I hadn't really thought about it from their side.

Must have been awful for everyone involved. Desperate people calling all day and overworked staff trying to help but unable to keep up.

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely check out their data. This thread has been super helpful for getting the real story behind the statistics.

True. The labor force participation rate dropped significantly too, which affects how unemployment is calculated.

Good point about labor force participation. I should probably mention that caveat in my analysis.

The hospitality industry got decimated overnight. So many of us ended up on unemployment who had never filed before.

Same here, worked in events and went from fully booked to zero events literally overnight in March.

Thank you! This discussion has really helped me understand the personal impact behind the numbers. Really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences.

That's a great observation for the conclusion of my paper. The uneven recovery is probably still affecting some industries today.

Absolutely. The aggregate unemployment rate only tells part of the story when different sectors had such different experiences.