Nearly 60k Virginians filed jobless claims last week

33.4 million Americans have filed claims during the last seven weeks

Published May 7, 2020 by Sydney Lake

Nearly 60,000 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment last week, according to the Virginia Employment Commission, a decrease of about 12,000 jobless claims from the week prior.

“Though the 17.7% decline indicates that the volume of initial claims has retreated from its recent peak, it may not return to pre-pandemic levels for some time,” VEC Economist Timothy Aylor said in a statement.

Although the number of initial claims for unemployment decreased, the number of Virginians who have continued to file for unemployment insurance benefits reached 376,689 last week — a 10% increase from the previous week. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file unemployment claims each week in order to continue receiving benefits. 

More than 3.1 million people in the United States filed initial claims for unemployment last week, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, marking a total of 33.4 million Americans who have filed jobless claims during the last seven weeks.

The regions of the state that have been most impacted are Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads.

Below are the top 10 localities, listed by number of initial unemployment claims, for the week ending May 2:

• Fairfax County, 7,029
• Prince William County, 3,541
• Virginia Beach, 3,093
• Loudoun County, 2,399
• Richmond, 2,290
• Chesterfield County, 2,185
• Henrico County, 2,163
• Norfolk, 1,874
• Chesapeake, 1,693
• Newport News, 1,619

Last week’s U.S. claims were down by 677,000. For the week that ended April 18, the total number of people claiming benefits in all unemployment programs for the week was 18.9 million, up 2.4 million from the previous week. During the same week in 2019, there were 1.6 million people claiming benefits.

In the week ending April 18, 11 states reported nearly 1 million people claiming Pandemic Unemployment Assistance through the CARES Act. It provides temporary benefits for people who are not eligible for regular or traditional unemployment insurance.

Seven states reported 52,305 individuals claiming Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (also through the CARES Act), which provides up to an additional 13 weeks of regular or traditional unemployment insurance benefits to those who have exhausted their eligibility.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 15.5% for the week that ended April 25, a 3.1% increase from the previous week.

The states with the highest unemployment rates for the week ending on April 18 were Vermont, West Virginia, Michigan, Rhode Island, Nevada, Connecticut, Puerto Rico, Georgia, New York and Washington. States with the largest increases in initial claims for the week that ended on April 25 were Washington, Georgia, New York, Oregon and Alabama. The largest decreases happened in California, Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.