Alexandria’s Initial and Continued Unemployment Claims Keep Trending Down

Alexandria’s unemployment figures continue to trend downward with initial and continued claims, according to data from the Virginia Unemployment Commission.

For the week ending Sept. 26, the city had 3,282 continued claims, down from 3,503 claims for the week ending Sept. 19. There were also 4,036 continued claims for the week ending Sept. 12, and 4,343 claims for the week ending August 29.

The week ending Sept. 26 is the 28th week since the pandemic began in Virginia.

There were 114 initial claims for the week ending Sept. 26, which is a decrease of 23 claims over the previous week.

Alexandria is one of 89 localities that saw a decrease or no change in the number of initial claims during that period. Fairfax County had the most initial unemployment claims in Virginia this week with 597 initial filings, and had 20,634 continued claims for the week ending Sept. 26.

Statewide, there were 9,377 initial claims this week, which is down 11.4% compared to the previous week.

According to VEC:

The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of initial claims filed from mid-March through the September 26, 2020 filing week totaled 1,167,032, or 28.4%, of pre-pandemic payroll employment, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending September 26, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 9,377. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 1,205 claimants from the previous week and continued the overall trend of lower claims volumes seen in recent months following April’s peak.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 173,717, which was a 7.7% decrease from the previous week, but 156,577 higher than the 17,140 continued claims from the comparable week last year. They have declined at a consistent pace since mid-August–around 6.8% a week.

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.