OLYMPIA — Unemployment in Washington state is kind of a good news/bad news situation this week.

There’s ample evidence that many folks are getting back to work. There were a little over 28,000 claims in the week leading up to the Fourth of July, which was down 11% from the week before. But unemployment still remains at record levels, over 400% of this time last year.

If you’re out of work right now and you’re claim has been held up, you might be glad to hear that Employment Security Commissioner Suzi LeVine said today that there are now less than 35,000 people waiting for resolution of their claims, and that questions around their benefits should be resolved by the end of the month.

More than a million people have filed claims for unemployment since early March when the pandemic job losses began, and the state has paid more than $7 billion in benefits. Two thirds of that is federal money, that additional $600 a week on top of the state’s weekly payout.

The bad news? The federal program that provides the additional $600 is set to expire at the end of the month.

In the meantime, US Senators return to Washington, D.C., on Monday after a weeklong break, and some analysts are predicting that another big coronavirus aid package could be approved by late July.