RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed during the December 5 filing week jumped to its highest level since the August 8 filing week, according to figures released today.
For the filing week ending December 5, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 16,654. The latest claims figure was an increase of 8,048 claimants from the previous week yet remained much smaller—only 11% as large—than the 147,369 claims filed during the April 4 filing week peak.
For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 73,804, which was a 2.1% increase from the previous week, but 54,728 higher than the 19,076 continued claims from the comparable week last year. This increase, though small, was the first increase in continued claims since the August 15 filing week. 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 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 853,000, an increase of 137,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 4,000 from 712,000 to 716,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 947,504 in the week ending December 5, an increase of 228,982 (or 31.9 percent) from the previous week. There were 317,866 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. Looking at preliminary data, all but a handful of states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (+47,454) was the largest increase among states. Illinois’s preliminary weekly change (+31,468) was the second largest increase. Others included Texas (+19,871), New York (+17,528), and Pennsylvania (+16,366). Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+14,615) was the 6th largest increase.
PDF of Press Release