Va. new jobless claims dropped below 7,000 last week

Virginia’s new unemployment claims fell last week, as did continued claims, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday.

For the filing week ending June 19, 6,905 people filed initial jobless claims, a decrease of 944 from the previous week. Continued unemployment claims totaled 42,878 last week, down 1,915 claims from the previous week.

This time a year ago, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, 25,293 people filed new unemployment claims, 72.69% more than last week, while 375,579 people filed continued claims, 89% more than last week. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.

On Wednesday, the VEC reported that May’s unemployment rate was at 4.5% statewide, a .2% decrease from April’s rate and below the national jobless rate of 5.8%

More than half of the claimants who filed for benefits last week (and the prior four weeks) reported being in these industries: accommodations/food service; administrative and waste services; retail trade; and health care and social assistance.

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 411,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There were 1,447,127 initial claims during the same week last year.