April statistics tell COVID’s awful toll on state economy

Jobless rate triples; 527,000 jobs are lost   OLYMPIA — Washington’s economy lost 527,000 jobs in April and the state’s preliminary seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate for April increased from 5.1 percent to 15.4 percent, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD).   The comparisons are to just one month earlier, March 2020: Total job losses, 527,000…