Dressing up bad news as good news, Virginia Employment Commission Department: hey, the number of initial unemployment claims filed during the most recent filing week were 83 percent lower than in the comparable week in 2020, while continued claims were 82 percent lower.
Ahem, except that, for the filing week ending April 17, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 13,751, an increase of 8,717 claimants from the previous week.
This brought the total number of claims filed since the March 21, 2020 filing week to 1,601,480, 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 55,273, which was a drop of 2,098 claims from the previous week, and 242,720 lower than the 297,993 continued claims from the comparable week last year.
Over half of claims that had a self-reported industry were in the accommodation/food service, administrative and waste services, retail trade, and healthcare/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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