Washington's unemployment rate has increased by 28%. | Pixabay
Washington's unemployment rate has increased by 28%. | Pixabay
The number of unemployment claims has gone up 28%, while the state of Washington deals with new fraudulent claims, according to the Spokesman-Review.
As of late, 138,733 unemployment applications were filed the week ending May 16, making the total more than 1.6 million since early March, Washington’s Employment Security Department (ESD) announced on May 21. It’s also 28% more than the 109,425 that were filed the week of May 9.
At the same time, the ESD is taking steps to stop fraudulent claims, the Spokesman-Review reported. It’s already brought on 100 extra workers to field questions on its hotline and has also started using more verification methods.
Suzi LeVine, employment security commissioner, told the Spokesman-Review the new methods have been effective so far.
“We do have definitive proof that the countermeasures we put into place are working," LeVine told the Spokesman-Review. "We have prevented hundreds of millions of additional dollars from going out to criminals and prevented thousands of fraudulent claims from being filed."
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