Virginia’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims for Week Ending December 26th

RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of continued claims filed during the December 26 filing week dipped below 65,000 to its lowest level since early May, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending December 26, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 11,890. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 2,750 claimants from the previous week and fell to its lowest level in over a month.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 63,443, which was a 6.0% decrease from the previous week, but 44,346 higher than the 19,097 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Over half of claims were in the accommodation/food service, health care, administrative support, and retail trade industries. 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 December 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 787,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 3,000 from 803,000 to 806,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 841,111 in the week ending December 26, a decrease of 31,736 (or -3.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 312,524 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. Looking at preliminary data, half of states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. New York’s preliminary weekly change (+9,247) was the largest increase among states. California’s preliminary weekly change (+8,961) was the second largest increase. Kentucky’s preliminary weekly change (+4,144) was the third largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+3,326) was the fourth largest increase.