Va. new jobless claims dropped 28% last week

Virginia’s initial unemployment claims fell 28% last week since the previous week and totaled almost 500 more than the claims in the same week last year, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday.

For the filing week ending Aug. 21, the state recorded 11,923 new jobless claims, down 4,670 from the previous week. Continued claims totaled 37,075, up 1,994 from last week. New jobless claims had risen in the two weeks preceding this one.

Compared to the same week last year, continued claims were 85% lower than the 249,745 claims in that week, while initial claims were about 4.3% higher than a year ago, when new claims totaled 11,436.

This brought the total number of claims filed since March 21, 2020 to 1,791,102 claims, according to the VEC.

People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.

The VEC has started notifying people who are receiving the benefits that all federal unemployment COVID-19 benefits will come to an end on Sept. 4. That includes the $300 a week supplemental unemployment benefit.

VEC is under court order to get through a backlog of 92,000 cases by Labor Day, but has filed for dismissal of the lawsuit, saying it has resolved 98% of the disputed unemployment claims.

The majority of the claimants who filed for benefits last week reported being in these industries: health care and social assistance; administrative and waste services; retail; and accommodations/food service.

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

Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims last week was 353,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised level. There were 814,639 initial claims in the comparable week last year.