Jobless claims in Va. spike to highest level since July
Number of claims jumped nearly 45% compared to last week
The number of Virginians filing initial claims for unemployment benefits jumped nearly 45% to 28,227 last week compared with the week prior, according to the Virginia Employment Commission.
The agency said it suspects some of the rise could be attributed to layoffs that traditionally occur after the holiday season.
The number of claims for benefits week-afterweek after an initial claim stayed steady at 63,687 during the week ending Jan. 9, but was more than doubled from 23,577 a year ago, pre-pandemic.
The numbers account for only claims for traditional state unemployment. Last week, another 3,387 new claims were filed statewide as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which made the self-employed and independent contractors of the gig economy eligible for jobless benefits. It was a drop of 1,297 PUA claims in Virginia from the week earlier, according to U.S. Department of Labor data. The number of continued PUA claims rose by more than 21,000 the week ending Dec. 26 to 191,177.
Claims for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which extended the number of weeks claimants could receive traditional unemployment benefits if they had run out, stayed virtually unchanged at 83,541 as of Dec. 26.
Added up, as of the week ending Jan. 2, there were nearly 355,000 Virginians collecting regular or pandemic-related jobless benefits. In mid-July, the number exceeded 900,000.
Nationwide, the number of people continuing to claim some form of unemployment benefit during the week ending Dec. 26 dropped by 744,511 compared with the week prior to 18.4 million people. Last week, initial claims across the country rose by 181,000 to 965,000.