Initial and Continued Unemployment Claims Go Down in Alexandria

After weeks of climbing to peaks not seen since the height of the pandemic last spring, Alexandria’s initial and continued unemployment claims have gone down.

The Virginia Employment Commission reports that here were 632 initial (first time) claims in Alexandria for the week ending Jan. 16, a 24% drop over the previous week’s total of 836 claims. In December, the number of initial claims reached its lowest point since the pandemic began, but rose sharply after the holidays. For the week ending Dec. 26, for instance, there were 131 initial claims.

Alexandria’s continued claims also fell to 1,120, down from the previous week’s total of 1,272.

The week ending Jan. 16 is the 44th week since the COVID-19 crisis began in Virginia.

Statewide, there was a slight increase in continued unemployment claims, from 63,687 claims to 63,839 claims. There was also a 25% drop in initial claims, from 28,227 claims to 21,073 claims — the first drop since the week ending Dec. 26.

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

According to VEC:

The locality with the most initial unemployment claims this week was Fairfax County which saw 1,102 initial filings. Virginia Beach City and Richmond City followed with 994 and 993 initial claims respectively. Of the 133 counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth, 120 localities saw either a decrease or no change in the number of filings this week compared to the week before. The locality with the largest decrease was Norfolk City which had 609 fewer initial claims compared to the previous week.

Learn more about filing a weekly or continued claim here.