RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed rose to their highest level in over a month during the most recent filing week.
For the filing week ending September 18, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 15,962. The latest claims figure was an increase of 12,140 claimants from the previous week. After last weeks’ steep decline, filings reverted to trends from earlier in the summer as some claimants, whose federal benefits ended September 04, filed for unemployment benefits.
For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 37,569, which was a decrease of 3,055 claims from the previous week and 80% lower than the 188,195 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Over half of claims that had a self-reported industry were in the health care and social assistance, retail trade, administrative and waste services industries, and accommodation and food services. The continued claims total is mainly comprised of those recent initial claimants who continued to file for unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For additional information on who is claiming unemployment insurance in Virginia, access the VEC’s U.I. claims data dashboard (https://www.vec.virginia.gov/ui-claims-dashboard) that is updated no later than the following Monday after the weekly claims press release.
Nationwide, in the week ending September 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 351,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 3,000 from 332,000 to 335,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 306,209 in the week ending September 18, an increase of 40,307 (or 15.2 percent) from the previous week. There were 815,892 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. Looking at preliminary data, more states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (+24,221) was the largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+12,879) was the second largest increase. Ohio’s preliminary weekly change (+3,482) was the third largest increase. Oregon’s was the fourth largest increase (+3,331). North Carolina’s increase (+2,900) was the fifth largest weekly increase. Perhaps recovering from Hurricane Ida, Louisiana’s decrease (-7,308) was the largest weekly decrease.
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