New unemployment claims up 6 percent last week

For the filing week ending July 17, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial unemployment claims in Virginia was 6,304, an increase of 352 claimants from the previous week.

This brought the total number of claims filed since the March 21, 2020 filing week to 1,740,153, 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 35,202, which was a decrease of 1,135 claims from the previous week, and 90 percent lower than the 357,098 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

Over half of claims that had a self-reported industry were in the administrative and waste services, accommodation and food services, health care and social assistance, 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.