RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of continued claims filed during the November 7 filing week dipped below 100,000 to its lowest level since early May, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending November 7, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 9,909. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 441 claimants from the previous week and fell to its lowest level in over a month.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 91,960, which was a 7.8% decrease from the previous week, but 73,760 higher than the 18,200 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Over half of claims were in the accommodation/food service, health care, administrative support, 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 November 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 709,000, a decrease of 48,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 6,000 from 751,000 to 757,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 723,105 in the week ending November 7, a decrease of 20,799 (or -2.8 percent) from the previous week. There were 238,996 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (-14,127) was the largest decrease among states. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-5,179) was the second largest decrease. Others included Kentucky (-4,979), New Jersey (-4,703), Florida (-3,497), and Illinois (-2,856). Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+2,150) was the fourth largest increase while Washington (+10,381) reported the largest weekly increase in filings.