Jobless claims stayed flat last week in Va.

Nearly 64K Virginians remain unemployed a year after pandemic hit state

Published March 4, 2021 by Sydney Lake

As the state approaches the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s presence here, initial jobless claims remained essentially unchanged from the previous week, according to figures released Thursday by the Virginia Employment Commission. Continued claims fell slightly.

During the week ending Feb. 27, 12,155 Virginians filed initial unemployment claims, compared to 11,944 from the week prior.

Last week, 63,998 Virginians remained unemployed, which represents 41,795 more claims filed compared to the same period in 2020, but approximately a 1% decrease from the previous week’s filings. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.

“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,” according to the VEC.

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 Feb. 27:

Richmond, 582
Virginia Beach, 510
Fairfax County, 501
Norfolk, 463
Prince William County, 346
Newport News, 312
Chesapeake, 294
Chesterfield County, 283
Alexandria, 274
Hampton, 258

Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims last week was 745,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There were 216,982 initial claims during the same week last year.