Va. new jobless claims up 171%

For the April 19-24 filing week, 37,356 Virginians submitted initial unemployment claims, a 171.6% increase from the previous week, but a 48.4% decrease from this time a year ago, when jobless claims were near a peak during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Virginia Employment Commission reports that last week’s number of initial claims has reverted to earlier months’ trend after seeing lower volumes in previous weeks.

Last week’s new claims rose by 23,605 compared with those from the week ending April 17, when 13,751 people filed, according to the VEC’s Thursday report. This week a year ago, 72,488 people filed initial claims in Virginia.

The number of continued claims filed last week — 54,281 — dropped by 992 from the previous week. This week a year ago, 341,295 continued claims were filed, 84% higher than last week. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.

More than half of the claimants who filed for benefits last week (and the prior four weeks) reported being in the accommodation/food service, administrative and waste services, retail trade and health care and social assistance industries, according to the VEC.

The regions of the state that have been most impacted continue to be Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. 

Below are the top 10 localities, listed by number of initial unemployment claims, for the week ending April 24:

• Richmond, 2,051
• Prince William County, 1,845
• Norfolk, 1,774
• Fairfax County, 1,672
• Virginia Beach, 1,538
• Alexandria, 1,498
• Portsmouth, 1,400
• Fredericksburg, 989
• Roanoke, 913
• Newport News, 749

Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims last week was 553,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There were 3,468,261 initial claims during the same week last year.