RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed during the January 2 filing week rose to its highest levels since early August, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending January 2, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 19,530. The latest claims figure was an increase of 7,640 claimants from the previous week which could in part reflect seasonal spikes in layoffs often seen after the holidays.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 63,588, which was a 0.2% increase from the previous week, but 41,417 higher than the 22,171 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Over half of claims were in the accommodation/food service, health care, administrative and waste services, 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 January 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 787,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 3,000 from 787,000 to 790,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 922,072 in the week ending January 2, an increase of 77,400 (or 9.2 percent) from the previous week. There were 335,480 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Colorado’s preliminary weekly change (+18,777) was the largest increase among states. Kansas’s preliminary weekly change (+15,863) was the second largest increase. Louisiana’s preliminary weekly change (+14,226) was the third largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+13,280) was the fourth largest increase. Illinois reported a weekly decrease of 62,765 claimants.