Henrico's first-time unemployment claims fall for fifth straight week

New unemployment claims among Henrico residents fell for the fifth straight week – this time by about 13 percent – during the most recent reporting period, according to new data released by the Virginia Employment Commission earlier today.

A total of 1,876 residents filed claims for the first time during the week of May 3 to 9, down from the 2,163 who had done so the previous week. That ranked Henrico seventh among state localities in number of new filers that week, just slightly behind Chesterfield County and Richmond.

In total, 25,559 Henrico residents have filed initial unemployment claims during the past eight weeks (since the pandemic began); that’s about 13.7 percent of Henrico’s workforce. The county ranks sixth among all state localities in the number of people who have filed initial claims during that period, about 200 behind Chesterfield and less than 500 ahead of Richmond.

About 8,200 Henrico residents who had filed initial claims during the first seven weeks of the pandemic did not file continuing claims during the most recent week. That could indicate that some have returned to work, although county officials have said that they focus primarily upon the total number of first-time filers when considering the impact of the pandemic.

Statewide, about 52,000 people filed unemployment claims for the first time last week, about 12.6 percent fewer than had done so the previous week, according to the VEC – which also announced that the more than 16 percent of Virginia’s pre-pandemic workforce now has filed initial claims at some point during the past two months.

The accommodation and food services industry continued to witness the highest total of initial claims statewide (nearly 20 percent of all those filed during the most recent week). That sector accounted for 45 percent of the new claims during the first week after the pandemic hit.

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