As the economy continues to grow and employers are hiring more than they have in year, the lines of people typically seen at the unemployment office are decreasing as Virginia now has its lowest number of jobless claims in 45 years. The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) now expects the state to have an 11 percent drop in new claims from last year’s level, based on a continuous decrease in claims filed through the end of June.
In a report from the Daily Press, Ellen Marie Hess, commissioner of the VEC, appeared in front of a General Assembly panel on Wednesday, explaining that the state is on track to conclude the year with just 134,000 jobless claims. She said that “final payments,” a measure of the number of people who have been unable to find work and have run out of benefits, coming from the VEC are down 13 percent since 2017.
Hess also explained that the number of companies across the Commonwealth that are paying the “lowest rate,” a metric of how now-unemployed individuals receive benefits, has increased to 68.4 percent of employers, up from 64.5 percent one year prior. Moreover, Virginia employers will soon see an additional cut in unemployment insurance taxes, with a 25 percent decline predicted. Virginia’s average costs are nearly one-third below the national average, at $378 per week in 2018, as opposed to $445 per week as a nationwide average.
“I think it shows that Virginia’s job market is staying strong,” said Delegate Lee Ware (R-Powhatan) who is chairman of the General Assembly’s commission on unemployment compensation.
Virginia’s unemployment rate is usually below the national average, but continues to get better throughout the year. The rate held at a steady 3.2 percent in June and July, but was 0.5 percent down from the same time last year. The Commonwealth’s unemployment rate was 3.6 percent at the beginning of year.