Alexandria Weekly Unemployment Claims Remain Over 400 As Recovery Slows

(Updated 5 p.m.) Alexandria is recovering from the unemployment spike at the start of the pandemic, but that steadily slowed over the last month.

Data released from the Virginia Employment Commission shows that there were 409 claims from the week of June 13. Since the April 4 high of 2,578 claims, claims have steadily trended down, but initial declines of several-hundred claims per week has dwindled to a less than 50 claim difference between weeks.

Alexandria’s unemployment claims remain higher than neighboring Arlington, which has 333 claims last week.

The data does not account for jobs recovered in the second phase of reopening, which only started on June 12. Several local service industry jobs that faced layoffs during the pandemic have started rehiring since the latest employment claims were calculated.

A VEC press release celebrated statewide progress while noting that unemployment remained substantially higher than typical unemployment filings.

“For the filing week ending June 13, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 27,186,” the VEC said. “The latest claims figure was a decrease of 2,045 claimants from the previous week. The weekly total was the lowest since before the initial spike in unemployment insurance claims during the March 21 filing week.”

Chart by Vernon Miles