RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of continued claims filed during the December 12 filing week fell by 5,785 claims from the previous filing week, according to figures released today.
For the filing week ending December 12, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 14,509. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 2,145 claimants from the previous week.
For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 68,019, which was a 7.8% decrease from the previous week, but 48,791 higher than the 19,228 continued claims from the comparable week last year. This drop indicated a resumption of its recent declining trend and was over 80% lower than its May 16 filing week peak. 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 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 885,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 9,000 from 853,000 to 862,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 935,138 in the week ending December 12, a decrease of 21,335 (or -2.2 percent) from the previous week. There were 270,547 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-11,903) was the largest decrease among states. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (-9,717) was the second largest decrease. Others included Minnesota (-9,254), Florida (-7,362), and Wisconsin (-7,222). Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+4,441) was the fourth largest increase.
PDF of Press Release