The number of unemployment claims continued to rise locally during the second full week of 2021, according to the most recent data from the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC).
Henry County’s initial unemployment claims rose to 143 for the filing week ending Jan. 16. This was an increase of 42 claims from the previous week. The City of Martinsville also had an increase from the previous week with 29 more individuals filing initial claims, bringing the total to 82. Patrick County had the smallest increase of the three localities with an increase of 13.
While Patrick County saw the smallest increase of initial claims, it also had the largest increase of continued claims with the county, from 94 to 134 during the week.
Martinsville also had an increase of continued claims as the city ended the week with 131 claims compared to 104 the previous week. Henry County was the only locality of the three which had a decrease in continued claims. While the county had 483 continued claims the week prior, it finished the most recent week at 476.
For the filing week ending Jan. 16, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 21,073. While still elevated compared to recent months’ trends, the latest claims figure was a decrease of 7,154 claimants from the previous week. Elevated levels in recent weeks may have, in part, reflected seasonal spikes in layoffs often seen after the holidays, as well as reapplications for benefits following the government’s renewal of supplemental benefits until March 14 as part of the latest stimulus package.
Continued weeks claimed totaled 63,839, which was a 0.2 percent increase from the previous week, but 41,621 higher than the 22,218 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 consists mainly of those recent initial claimants who continued to file for unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 900,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 39,000 from 965,000 to 926,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 960,668 in the week ending Jan. 16, a decrease of 151,303 (or -13.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 282,088 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (-58,655) was the largest decrease among states. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-13,890) was the second-largest decrease. New York’s preliminary weekly change (-12,212) was the third largest decrease. Pennsylvania’s preliminary weekly change (-9,638) was the fourth-largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (-3,886) was the 16th largest decrease.
