Initial unemployment claims were down 7.8 percent last week, according to a Thursday report from the Virginia Employment Commission.
For the filing week ending May 8, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 11,270, a decrease of 961 claimants from the previous week.
This brought the total number of claims filed since the March 21, 2020 filing week to 1,662,337, compared to the 477,600 average filed during the previous three economic recessions since 1990.
For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 57,844, which was an increase of 2,649 claims from the previous week, and 334,829 lower than the 392,673 continued claims from the comparable week last year.
Over half of claims that had a self-reported industry were in the accommodation and food services, administrative and waste services, retail trade, and health care and 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.
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