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The employment news is still bad for many Henrico citizens, but it is slowing slightly.
For the sixth straight week, the number of new unemployment claims filed by county residents declined – this time by about 18 percent from the previous week, to 1,542, according to data released by the Virginia Employment Commission.
Henrico ranked sixth in the state during the most recent filing period (May 10 to 16) in total number of new claims. Altogether, more than 27,000 people in Henrico – more than 14 percent of the county’s pre-pandemic workforce – have filed for unemployment since March 15.
Henrico also ranks sixth overall in the state among total initial unemployment claims in the nine weeks since the pandemic began, just behind Chesterfield County and just ahead of Richmond.
The three localities, whose residents have lost more than 81,000 combined jobs during the past nine weeks, are separated by only 421 total filings during that time.
During the most recent week, however, only about 62 percent of Henricoans who had filed initial claims during the past eight weeks filed continued claims. That could indicate that some of them 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 44,700 people filed first-time claims during the most recent week, down about 14.3 percent from the previous week. Overall, since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 654,000 Virginians have filed initial claims, according to the VEC.
