RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of continued claims filed during the October 24 filing week was over two thirds lower than its May 16 filing week peak, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending October 24, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 12,352. The latest claims figure was an increase of 987 claimants from the previous week and rose to its highest level since mid-August.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 127,621, which was a 1.3% decrease from the previous week, but 110,732 higher than the 16,889 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Although a deceleration, 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 24, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 751,000, a decrease of 40,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 4,000 from 787,000 to 791,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 732,223 in the week ending October 24, a decrease of 28,354 (or -3.7 percent) from the previous week. There were 198,733 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-11,551) was the largest decrease among states. Florida’s preliminary weekly change (-9,196) was the second largest decrease. Others included California (-7,819), Louisiana (-3,925), North Carolina (-3,021), and Washington (-2,936). Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+3,207) was the third largest increase among states behind Michigan (+8,763) and Illinois (+7,871).