Initial Unemployment Claims Jump in Alexandria

First-time unemployment has sharply climbed in Alexandria, while the number of continued claims keeps going down.

The Virginia Employment Commission reports that there were 241 initial claims for the week ending Dec. 5, an increase of 119% from the 110 initial claims from the week before.

There were also 112 initial claims for the week ending Nov. 21.; 173 initial claims for the week ending Nov. 14; and 102 initial claims for the week ending Nov. 7.

The week ending Dec. 5 was the 38th week since the pandemic began in Virginia.

Alexandria’s continued claims fell to 1,358 for the week ending Dec. 5, a decrease of 1.3% from the 1,375 claims from the week before. It’s also 10% down from the 1,513 continued claims for the week ending Nov. 21.

Statewide, there were 16,654 initial claims for the week ending Dec. 5. That’s a 94% increase, or 8,048 initial claims over the previous week. There were also 73,804 continued claims, which was a 2.1% increase from the previous week.

“This is the largest percentage increase from week to week since initial claims saw a 143.1% increase in the week ending March 28,” according to a VEC release.

According to VEC:

The locality with the most initial unemployment claims this week was Fairfax County which saw 1,230 initial filings. Virginia Beach City and Prince William County followed with 1,022 and 1,015 initial claims respectively. Of the 133 counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth, 118 localities saw an increase in the number of filings this week compared to the week before. The locality with the largest increase in claims was Fairfax County which had 739 more claims compared to the previous week.

Looking for work? The Alexandria Workforce Development Center hosts weekly workshops, and there are a number of job openings with the city.