More than 800,000 initial unemployment claims have been filed since mid-March in Virginia, the Virginia Employment Commission said.
Since March 15, the commission has received 822,300 initial unemployment claims and has processed about 75 percent of them. More than $3.8 billion in unemployment funds have been distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“The commission has responded to the current unprecedented challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic by deploying all available resources to assist eligible Virginians with receiving their unemployment benefits,” Employment Commission Commissioner Ellen Marie Hess said Thursday in a statement. “We are working diligently to validate and resolve issues for constituents as quickly as possible.”
Initial claims have been trending downward after an initial spike. In the filing week that ended June 6, the seasonally adjusted new unemployment claims were 29,231. The week before, 31,379 new claims were filed.
If a claims has not been processed, the commission said there could be a variety of reasons why, including:
• A person did not file a weekly certification;
• The previous employer reported the person was fired for misconduct, took a leave of absence or quit without good cause;
• A person provided an incorrect Social Security number or incorrect banking information;
• A person earned wages that were equal to or exceeded their maximum weekly benefit amount;
• A person exhausted their benefits for the benefit year prior to the pandemic.
In response to the demand, the commission added more than 200 employees.
