14K+ Virginians filed initial jobless claims last week

More than 48K Virginians remain unemployed

Published December 17, 2020 by Sydney Lake

The number of initial jobless claims filed last week reached close to its Aug. 8 peak, with more than 14,000 Virginians filing initial unemployment claims, according to Virginia Employment Commission data released Thursday.

The week prior, initial claims reached more than 16,000. While there was a 12.9% decrease in claims from the previous week, the number of Virginians filing initial claims for unemployment remains well above figures from recent months and from comparable figures last year.

For the week ending Dec. 12, 14,509 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment, a decrease of 2,145 claimants from the previous week.

Last week, 68,019 Virginians remained unemployed — 48,791 higher than the 19,228 continued claims from the same period last year. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.

“This drop indicated a resumption of its recent declining trend and was over 80% lower than its May 16 filing week peak,” according to the VEC. “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.”

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 Dec. 12:

Fairfax County, 1,009
Virginia Beach, 850
Prince William County, 769
Richmond, 584
Norfolk, 558
Henrico County, 456
Chesterfield County, 424
Chesapeake, 347
Portsmouth, 274
Loudoun County, 270

Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for last week was 885,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There were 270,547 initial claims during the same week last year.