RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed in the October 17 filing week was more than five times the number filed during the comparable week in 2019, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending October 17, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 11,365. The latest claims figure was an increase of 2,255 claimants from the previous week but was in line with claims volumes trends seen in recent months following April’s peak.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 129,300, which was a 9.1% decrease from the previous week, but 112,532 higher than the 16,768 continued claims from the comparable week last year. This drop indicated a continuation of its recent declining trend. 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 October 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 787,000, a decrease of 55,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 56,000 from 898,000 to 842,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 756,617 in the week ending October 17, a decrease of 73,125 (or -8.8 percent) from the previous week. There were 186,748 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (-17,206) was the largest decrease among states. Florida’s preliminary weekly change (-11,944) was the second largest decrease. Others included Georgia (-10,131), New York (-9,902), Michigan (-9,474), and Washington (-5,768). Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+4,389) was the third largest increase among states.