Henrico sees drop in new unemployment claims for fourth straight week

New unemployment claims in Henrico County dropped for the fourth straight week – by about 16 percent – during the most recent reporting period, according to data released today by the Virginia Employment Commission.

But more than 2,160 county residents still filed initial claims during the week of April 26 to May 2.

During the seven weeks of reported data since the beginning of the pandemic, 23,683 Henrico citizens have filed for unemployment; that’s about 12.6 percent of Henrico’s workforce and the sixth-highest total among state localities during that time.

More than 6,600 people who filed initial claims during the first six weeks of the pandemic did not file continuing claims during the most recent week, however, which could indicate that some of them have returned to work.

But Henrico County officials are more focused upon the total number of initial claims filed during those seven weeks, Henrico Deputy Finance Director Meghan Coates told the Citizen earlier this week.

“We’re not tracking continued unemployment claims right now because it’s really hard to know the reasons,” she said.

County officials use the federal Bureau of Labor and Statistics’ data, which showed an unemployment rate in Henrico of about 10 percent prior to the release of today’s new data.

Henrico had the seventh-most filers during the most recent week – down from its sixth-place ranking last week and fifth-place the week before. Like most localities in the state, Henrico’s first-time filings peaked during the week of March 29 to April 4 (at 5,720).

Statewide, nearly 60,000 people filed initial unemployment claims during the week of April 26 to May 2; that was down about 17 percent from the previous week.