RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed during the most recent filing week were three quarters lower than during the comparable week in 2020.

For the filing week ending June 26, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 8,196. The latest claims figure was an increase of 1,291 claimants from the previous week. This brought the total number of claims filed since the March 21, 2020 filing week to 1,721,072, compared to the 477,600 average filed during the previous three economic recessions since 1990.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 40,225, which was a decrease of 2,653 claims from the previous week, but 89% lower than the 366,714 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Over half of claims that had a self-reported industry were in the accommodation and food services, administrative and waste services, retail trade, and health care and social assistance industries. 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.

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 no later than the following Monday after the weekly claims press release.

Nationwide, in the week ending June 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 364,000, a decrease of 51,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 4,000 from 411,000 to 415,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 359,130 in the week ending June 26, a decrease of 38,262 (or -9.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 1,426,894 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Pennsylvania’s preliminary weekly change (-18,031) was the largest decrease. Kentucky’s preliminary weekly change (-8,034) was the second largest decrease. California’s preliminary weekly change (-6,882) was the third largest decrease. Texas’s decline was the fourth largest decrease (-4,771). Virginia’s increase (+1,891) was the fifth largest increase.