RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed during the February 6 filing week continued its recent trend toward lower, pre-holiday season levels, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending February 6, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 14,203. While still elevated compared to recent months’ trends, the latest claims figure was a decrease of 3,974 claimants from the previous week. Elevated levels in recent weeks may have, in part, reflected reapplications for benefits following the government’s renewal of supplemental benefits until March 14 as part of the latest stimulus package.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 65,091, which was a 3.3% decrease from the previous week, but 43,042 higher than the 22,049 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Over half of claims that had a self-reported industry were in the accommodation/food service, administrative and waste services, retail trade, and healthcare/social assistance 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 February 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 793,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 33,000 from 779,000 to 812,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 813,145 in the week ending February 6, a decrease of 36,534 (or -4.3 percent) from the previous week. There were 219,601 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Florida’s preliminary weekly change (-51,519) was the largest decrease among states. New York’s preliminary weekly change (-19,824) was the second largest decrease. Maryland’s preliminary weekly change (-19,736) was the third largest decrease. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-13,636) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (-1,344) was the 14th largest decrease.