Unemployment Claims Continuing to Drop

First-time unemployment claims dropped 10% in Washington last week compared to the one prior.

The state Employment Security Department says total claims also dropped by 6.6%.

It continues a three-week trend for initial applicants being lower than the week before.

Chelan County was down as well to the lowest first-time applications since late October. Douglas County was down slightly, as was Grant County and Okanogan County.

There were nearly 460-thousand total applications for unemployment during the week before Christmas.