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Tag: unemployment

80k+ Virginians filed jobless claims last week

More than 80,000 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment last week, down nearly 21% from the previous week, according to a news release issued Thursday by Virginia Unemployment Commission.

During the week that ended April 18, Virginia saw 82,729 workers file for unemployment, bringing the most recent five-week total for jobless claims to 493,501 — more than the total number of initial unemployment claims filed during the last three economic recessions combined, according to the VEC. 

Despite this, there were 21,000 fewer claimants than the previous week.

“The 20.9% decrease indicates that initial claims volumes may have peaked during the April 4 filing week, even as they remained stratospheric compared to historical trends,” VEC Economist Timothy Aylor said in a statement.

The number of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the U.S. during the week that ended April 18 was 4.427 million — 810,000 fewer than the week before, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. Most states showed decreases in claims from the most recent week.

The hospitality industry is still the largest occupational group impacted by the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19 pandemic. Other occupations that have high unemployment numbers include office and administrative support, personal care, sales and management, among others.

The Virginia Employment Commission

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

Below are the top 10 localities, listed by number of unemployment claims for the week ending April 11. The previous week’s claims are in parentheses.

  • Fairfax County, 11,239 (14,454)
  • Prince William County, 5,080 (6,353)
  • Virginia Beach, 4,724 (5,886)
  • Loudoun County, 3,751 (4,799)
  • Henrico County, 3,289 (3,827)
  • Chesterfield County, 3,173 (3,919)
  • Richmond, 2,849 (3,291)
  • Norfolk, 2,378 (2,939)
  • Newport News, 2,146 (2,577)
  • Chesapeake, 2,119 (2,597)

 

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Survey shows 24M jobs lost since labor market stats last released

Approximately 24 million jobs have been lost since the last United States Department of Labor market statistics were released in mid-March, according to a survey conducted by economists at Virginia Commonwealth University and Arizona State University.

“[This is] an unheard of loss in any economic downturn since the Great Depression,” said Adam Blandin, a VCU School of Business assistant professor, who conducted the survey with Alexander Bick, an associate professor of economics at Arizona State.

The 24 million lost jobs translate into a 12% decline in the national employment rate in just the past few weeks, according to the survey. 

According to the VCU-Arizona State survey covering March 29 through April 4, the employment rate has decreased from 72.7% to 60.7% and the unemployment rate increased from 4.5% to 20.2%. The survey also found that hours worked per working-age adult dropped 25% from the second week of March and more than 60% of work hours were spent from home.

Declines were most evident for female, older and less-educated workers, according to the survey.

U.S. labor market statistics are collected monthly and published with a three-week delay. The most recently released statistics cover the week ending March 14, which didn’t include the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.  The next federal labor statistics will be released May 8.

“We’re always going to be one to two months behind if we continue to rely on the traditional statistics,” Blandin said. “And under normal times, one to two months of a lag is no big deal, but the outbreak and associated economic downturn is moving so fast that policymakers are flying blind because they have very little idea of what’s going on with the labor market.”

The next VCU-Arizona State survey will be conducted on April 22, covering the week of April 12 through April 18. Results will be released on April 24. 

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More than 100k Virginians filed for unemployment last week

More than 100,000 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment last week, according to a news release Thursday afternoon from the Virginia Unemployment Commission.

During the week that ended on April 11, Virginia saw 104,619 workers file for unemployment, bringing the most recent four-week total to 410,762. If 67,000 more Virginians file initial claims for unemployment, it will match the total number of initial unemployment claims filed during the last three economic recessions, according to the VEC.

But the numbers also marks a 30% decline in jobless claims compared with the previous week. “The 30% decrease indicates that initial claims volumes may have peaked during the April 4 filing week, following its dizzying ascent in late March,” the VEC says.

More than 5.2 million Americans filed initial unemployment claims last week, a 1.37 million decrease from the previous week. Most states showed decreases in the week that ended April 9, with only nine states reporting increases, according to the VEC.

National data also shows that during the week ending April 4, Virginia had the fifth-largest increase in initial claims, another indicator that unemployment could have peaked that week. Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Texas saw some of the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 4.

The lodging and food services industries still remain the hardest-hit. Retail, health care, younger workers and female workers have also been disproportionately impacted, the VEC says. 

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

Here are the top 10 localities, listed by number of unemployment claims for the week ending April 11. The previous week’s claims are in parentheses.

  • Fairfax County, 14,454 (21,302)
  • Prince William County, 6,353 (9,178)
  • Virginia Beach, 5,886 (8,754)
  • Loudoun County, 4,799 (7,070)
  • Chesterfield County, 3,919 (5,720)
  • Richmond, 3,291 (4,740)
  • Norfolk, 2,939 (4,190)
  • Chesapeake, 2,597 (3,702)
  • Newport News 2,577 (3,667)

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Nearly 150,000 Virginians filed for unemployment last week

As the economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis continues, 147,369 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment last week, according to a news release Thursday afternoon from the Virginia Employment Commission.

This brings Virginia’s total unemployment claims for the last three weeks to 306,143. It’s more than twice the number of the roughly 135,000 jobless claims filed in all of 2019. 

This is triple the number from the previous week and more than 113,000 in excess of the 20,020 claims from the same week last year. 

Nationally, 6.6 million workers filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total to almost 17 million in just the last few weeks. 

The lodging and food services industries were initially the most affected, but other industries, including manufacturing, transportation and health care, have also been hit, according to VEC.

The worst-hit areas of the state, with more than 2,000 additional people filing for unemployment last week compared to the previous week, are in Northern Virginia, the Richmond region and Hampton Roads

Here are the top 10 localities, listed by number of unemployment claims for the week ending April 4. The previous week’s claims are in parentheses.

  • Fairfax County, 21,109 (12,109)
  • Prince William County, 9,178  (5,863)
  • Virginia Beach, 8,754 (7,386)
  • Loudoun County, 7,070 (4,561)
  • Chesterfield County, 5,720 (4,219)
  • Richmond, 4,740 (4,504)
  • Norfolk, 4,190 (3,446)
  • Chesapeake, 3,702 (2,919)
  • Newport News 3,667 (2,902)

 

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In one week, Va. unemployment has doubled

A record-breaking 112,497 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment last week, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday. That’s an increase of 66,220 claimants since last week, when 46,277 people filed for benefits.

In the last two weeks, more Virginians have filed for unemployment than in the entire previous year. Nearly 159,000 Virginians filed claims in the last two weeks, compared with about 135,000 in 2019.

According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics released Thursday, more than 114,000 Virginians have lost their jobs in the past two weeks due to coronavirus furloughs and layoffs. Across the country, more than 6.6 million people have filed for unemployment benefits, twice the number of workers who had filed last week.

In Virginia, retail and the hospitality industry has been hard-hit, but government employees and health care workers have also faced furloughs during the past few days. Bon Secours Mercy Health furloughed 700 people on Tuesday and Chesterfield County furloughed 500 the same day.

According to the Virginia Employment Commission’s weekly report Thursday, the state saw a 5,000% increase in claims during the week ending March 28 compared with the comparable 2019 week, due to the collapse related to COVID-19 spread.

The worst-hit communities, with more than 1,000 additional people filing for unemployment last week compared to the previous week, are in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, the Richmond region, Roanoke and Danville, according to VEC.

Here are the top 10 localities, listed by number of claims in the week ending March 28. The previous week’s number of claims is in parentheses.

  1. Fairfax County, 12,109 (4,345)
  2. Virginia Beach, 7,386 (3,314)
  3. Prince William County, 5,863 (2,222)
  4. Loudoun County, 4,561 (1,622)
  5. Richmond, 4,504 (3,070)
  6. Chesterfield County, 4,219 (1,970)
  7. Henrico County, 4,145 (2,096)
  8. Norfolk, 3,446 (1,763)
  9. Chesapeake, 2,919 (1,265)
  10. Newport News 2,902 (1,235)

Va. jobless claims reach record high amid COVID-19 crisis

A record-breaking 46,885 Virginians filed for unemployment benefits last week amid the economic nosedive that has accompanied the COVID-19 crisis, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics released Thursday. The previous record for initial unemployment claims in Virginia was 25,133 in December 1989, according to a report released Thursday from the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis at Old Dominion University.

Nationally, more than 3 million people have filed for unemployment, the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims on record. The previous national record was 695,000 in October 1982, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

The coronavirus crisis has resulted in 23,000 hotel-related layoffs in Virginia, and the Dragas Center anticipates that will continue. 

“With restaurants and bars closing and hotels and motels reporting that occupancy rates have fallen below 30%, we project layoffs will continue in these industries over the coming weeks,” the Dragas Center statement says. “While some retailers have announced hiring plans, the overall contraction in employment will continue to increase in the short term.”

The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) on Monday released the results of a study estimating that Virginia’s lodging industry will lose a total of more than 78,000 total direct and indirect jobs before the pandemic is over. 

On March 17, Gov. Ralph Northam waived the one-week waiting period for seeking unemployment benefits so that those who have been put out of work by the growing crisis can start receiving aid immediately through the Virginia Employment Commission.

Just a week ago, Northam said that 10,000 Virginians had filed for unemployment.

“As consumer and business expectations continue to decline and social distancing measures spread across the United States, unemployment claims will continue to increase in the coming weeks,” according to the Dragas Center.

Unemployment remained low for November in metro areas

Although not each individual city or county fell under a 5% unemployment rate in November 2019, Virginia’s 11 major metropolitan areas recorded unemployment rates below 3%, according to data released Friday by the Virginia Employment Commission.

Statewide, the locality with the lowest unemployment was Arlington County, at 1.7%. Buchanan County in far Southwest Virginia had the highest unemployment rate, at 5.5%.

Among the major metropolitan areas, Northern Virginia had the lowest unemployment rate, at exactly 2%, not moving the needle from October. The only metropolitan area that dropped its unemployment rate in November was the Staunton-Waynesboro area, from 2.3% to 2.2%.

Bristol, Hampton Roads, Harrisonburg, New River Valley, Northern Virginia and Richmond all maintained their unemployment rates from October to November.

Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Winchester’s each ended November with an additional 0.1% of the population unemployed.

Bristol and Lynchburg hold the unemployment rates in the state among major metro areas, at 2.8%, with Lynchburg’s unemployment rate moving up 0.1%.

None of the metropolitan areas’ unemployment rates moved more than 0.1% from October to November 2019.

Here is a rundown of the Virginia metro areas:

Bristol: 2.8% in November, same as October.

Charlottesville: 2.2%, up from 2.1%.

Hampton Roads: 2.7%, same as October.

Harrisonburg: 2.2%, same as October.

Lynchburg: 2.8%, up from 2.7%.

New River Valley: 2.6%, same as October.

Northern Virginia: 2%, same as October.

Richmond: 2.5%, same as October.

Roanoke: 2.5%, up from 2.4%.

Staunton-Waynesboro: 2.2%, down from 2.3%.

Winchester: 2.2%, up from 2.1%.