New unemployment claims up a bit from previous week

For the filing week ending June 26, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial unemployment claims in Virginia was 8,196, an increase of 1,291 claimants from the previous week.

This brought the total number of claims filed since the March 21, 2020 filing week to 1,721,072, 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 40,225, which was a decrease of 2,653 claims from the previous week, and 89 percent lower than the 366,714 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.