RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the total number of continued claims filed in the week ending April 25 surpassed ten percent of private sector payroll employment, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending April 25, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 72,488. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 10,241 claimants from the previous week. Though the 12.4% decline indicates that the volume of initial claims has retreated from its recent peak, it may not return to pre-pandemic levels for some time.  

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 341,295 up nearly 15% from the previous week and 322,665 higher than the 18,630 continued claims from the comparable week last year. The continued claims total mainly comprised those recent initial claimants who continued to file for unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. That total is more than ten percent of private sector payroll employment in the Commonwealth.

Although the young and female workers were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 layoffs in late March, the demographic composition of unemployment claimants has broadened to increasingly impact those in other groups. In Virginia, older workers, male workers, and those in other minority groups grew slightly as a share of filings according to the most recent published data. The information for the April 18 filing week below illustrates the age, gender, and racial composition of those who filed initial claims.

For additional information on who is claiming unemployment insurance in Virginia, access the VEC’s U.I. claims data dashboard (https://www.vec.virginia.gov/ui-claims-dashboard) that is updated the following Monday after the weekly claims press release.

Nationwide, the number of seasonally adjusted initial claims totaled 3,839,000, a decrease of 603,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 15,000 from 4,427,000 to 4,442,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 3,489,261 in the week ending April 25, a decrease of 792,387 (or -18.5 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had projected a decrease of 244,285 (or -5.7 percent) from the previous week. There were 204,755 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019.

According to updated figures from the April 18 filing week, the following are the states with the largest over-the-year increases in initial claims: Florida (+500,759), California (+484,460), Texas (+269,322), Georgia (+242,348), New York (+193,136), Pennsylvania (+182,136), and Michigan (+131,865). Virginia reported the 15^th largest over-the-year increase (+80,498) among states. Wyoming saw the smallest increase (+4,025).