Washington jobless claims remain at historic highs as recovery slows

In the latest sign of a cooling recovery, new weekly claims for unemployment insurance in Washington declined only modestly and remain roughly twice the level the state saw during the Great Recession.

For the week ending July 25, workers in Washington filed 28,840 initial claims for regular unemployment benefits, a decline of 1.7% from the prior week, the state Employment Security Department reported Thursday. Nationally, new weekly jobless claims rose marginally, to 1.4 million, the U.S. Labor Department reported.