Alexandria’s Initial and Continued Unemployment Claims Keep Going Down

Alexandria’s initial and continued unemployment claims continued their decline for the week ending Dec. 26.

The Virginia Employment Commission reports that there were 1,167 continued claims in Alexandria for the week ending Dec. 26, a 5% drop from the previous week’s total of 1,223 claims. That’s the lowest number of continued claims since the week ending April 4, which saw 1,710 claims.

Initial (first-time) claims in Alexandria also dropped to 131, a 17% drop over the previous week’s total of 164 claims.

The week ending Dec. 26 is the 41st week since the COVID-19 crisis began in Virginia.

Statewide, there were 11,890 initial claims, which was a 19% decrease of 2,750 claimants from the previous week. There were also 63,443 continued claims, which is a 6% decrease over the previous week, but 44,346 claims higher than the same period last year.

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

Below is a video with their services:

You can also learn more about filing a weekly or continued claim here.

According to VEC:

The locality with the most initial unemployment claims this week was Fairfax County which saw 691 initial filings. Virginia Beach City and Norfolk City followed with 641 and 546 initial claims respectively. Of the 133 counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth, 95 localities saw a decrease, or no change, in the number of filings this week compared to the week before. The locality with the largest decrease was Fairfax County which had 309 fewer initial claims compared to the previous week.