RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed during the August 22, 2020 filing week fell to near the average weekly volume in 2009, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending August 22, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 11,436. The latest claims figure was a decline of 3,715 claimants from the previous week, resuming the trend of steady decreases during August.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 249,745, which was a 5.8% decrease from the previous week but 230,488 higher than the 19,257 continued claims from the comparable week last year. They had leveled off in mid-August before picking up recent months’ declining trend in the most recent filing week. 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 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,006,000, a decrease of 98,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 2,000 from 1,106,000 to 1,104,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 821,591 in the week ending August 22, a decrease of 67,958 (or -7.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 176,867 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases while 12 states reported weekly increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Florida’s preliminary weekly change (-27,051) was the largest decrease among states. Others included Texas (-9,082), New Jersey (-6,057), North Carolina (-4,508), and Georgia (-4,043). Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (-2,281) was the 14th largest decrease among states.