RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed from mid-March through the June 13, 2020 filing week totaled 849,486, which surpassed twenty percent of pre-pandemic, nonfarm employment, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending June 13, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 27,186. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 2,045 claimants from the previous week. The weekly total was the lowest since before the initial spike in unemployment insurance claims during the March 21 filing week.   

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 386,893, down 9,163 from the previous week, but 367,430 higher than the 19,463 continued claims from the comparable week last year. 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. Continued claims during the June 13 filing week equaled 46% of all initial claims filed during the pandemic to this point. This percentage has trended downward in recent weeks.

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 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,508,000, a decrease of 58,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 24,000 from 1,542,000 to 1,566,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 1,433,027 in the week ending June 13, a decrease of 128,240 (or -8.2 percent) from the previous week. Most states reported decreases while six states reported weekly increases greater than 2,000. These were in Texas (+4,219), Nevada (+3,651), Washington (+2,974), New Jersey (+2,644), New York (+2,500), and Indiana (+2,021). Virginia’s weekly change was the 19th largest decline among states.