Alexandria’s continued claims for unemployment increased by 11% for the week ending Jan. 30, marking the second straight week of double-digit percentage increases in continued claims.

The Virginia Employment Commission reports that there were 1,367 continued claims for the week ending Jan. 30, an increase from the previous week‘s total of 1,231 claims, which was a 10% jump increase over the week ending Jan. 16.

The week ending Jan. 30 is the 46th week since the pandemic began in Virginia.

Statewide, continued claims increased slightly to 67,337 claims, which is 45,074 claims higher than the same week last year, which was before the pandemic. There were also 18,177 initial unemployment benefit claims, which marks a slight decrease.

“This is the third consecutive week of decreasing initial claims, the first time that this has happened since June 2020,” VEC noted.

According to VEC:

The locality with the most initial unemployment claims this week was Richmond City which saw 876 initial filings. Fairfax County and Virginia Beach City followed with 873 and 850 initial claims respectively. Of the 133 counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth, 70 localities saw an increase in the number of filings this week compared to the week before. The locality with the largest increase was Henrico County which had 74 more initial 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.

Learn more about filing a weekly or continued claim here.