Unemployment Claims Near 400K In Virginia; DC Claims Still Rising

VIRGINIA — More than 53,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed in Virginia for the week ending May 9, a number far higher than the weekly claims made before the start of the coronavirus crisis but a figure well below the state's mid-April peak in initial unemployment claims. In the District of Columbia, the number of initial unemployment claims totaled 5,746 last week, down from 8,113 new claims for the week ending May 2.

In Virginia, the 53,396 new unemployment claims for the week ending May 9 were down by about 6,000 from the week before and marked the fifth consecutive week of declining totals in Virginia, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Nearly 400,000 Virginians have filed for unemployment benefits since the coronavirus began. New unemployment claims in Virginia reached their peak of 147,369 for the week ending April 4. Although the number of initial claims for unemployment are decreasing, the number of Virginia residents who have continued to file for unemployment insurance benefits reached 392,673 last week

In D.C., initial unemployment claims reached their pandemic peak of 15,329 for the week ending April 4.

Though the week-to-week new unemployment claims have retreated from their recent peaks in Virginia and D.C., unemployment claims "may not return to pre-pandemic levels for some time," the Virginia Employment Commission said Thursday in a news release.

Nationwide, workers filed nearly 3 million new unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. For the week ending May 9, new unemployment claims totaled 2,981,000, a decrease of 195,000 from the previous week's level.

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The latest national number pushed the two-month count to 36.5 million of unemployment claims in the U.S., indicating a jobless rate that the Bureau of Labor Statistics said last week is the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

According to figures from the May 9 filing week, the accommodation and food service sector in Virginia, which includes hotels and restaurants, continued to see the greatest percentage of initial claims for unemployment benefits, at 19 percent.

"This reflects impacts of public health and safety measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic," the VEC said. "However, that percentage has declined since March 21, when about 45 percent of initial claims filed were in those industries."

For the week ending May 9, initial claims from workers in retail trade represented 15 percent of the total and health care/social assistance represented 13 percent, according to the VEC.

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