RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed during the November 28 filing week fell to its lowest level since the Pandemic’s employment effects began to be felt in mid-March, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending November 28, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 8,606. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 3,628 claimants from the previous week and fell to its lowest level since the March 14 filing week.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 72,305, which was a 10.9% decrease from the previous week, but 55,308 higher than the 16,997 continued claims from the comparable week last year. This drop indicated a continuation of its recent declining trend and was over 80% lower than its May 16 filing week peak. 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 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 712,000, a decrease of 75,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 9,000 from 778,000 to 787,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 713,824 in the week ending November 28, a decrease of 122,453 (or -14.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 216,827 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 (-38,522) was the largest increase among states. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-15,726) was the second largest increase. Others included Michigan (-12,448), Georgia (-10,535), Washington (-8,056), and Massachusetts (-6,350). Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (-1,085) was the 19th largest decrease.