The number of new initial unemployment claims filed with the Virginia Employment Commission held steady in the past week.
For the filing week ending July 11, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 32,292, an increase of 467 claimants from the previous week.
The weekly total pushed the total number of initial claims filed from the first filing week of 2020 through the July 11 filing week past 1 million initial claims.
For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 372,070, down 6,537 from the previous week, but 351,316 higher than the 20,754 continued claims from the comparable week last year.
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.
Continued claims during the July 11 filing week equaled 38 percent of all initial claims filed during the pandemic to this point. This percentage has leveled off in recent weeks.