RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed during the most recent filing week were 23% lower than during the comparable week in 2020.

For the filing week ending August 7, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 10,226. The latest claims figure was an increase of 4,197 claimants from the previous week. This brought the total number of claims filed since the March 21, 2020 filing week to 1,762,586, 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 31,739, which was a decrease of 221 claims from the previous week, and 88% lower than the 264,410 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Over half of claims that had a self-reported industry were in the health care and social assistance, administrative and waste services, accommodation and food services, and retail trade 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 August 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was   375,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 385,000 to 387,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 320,517 in the week ending August 7, a decrease of 5,198 (or -1.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 831,251 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. Looking at preliminary data, more states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Michigan’s preliminary weekly change (-4,365) was the largest decrease. Florida’s preliminary weekly change (-3,337) was the second largest decrease. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (-3,254) was the third largest decrease. New York’s decline was the fourth largest increase (-3,192). Virginia’s increase (+4,793) was the second largest increase.