The number of people collecting unemployment insurance in Virginia has sharply declined in recent months. But, that doesn't mean the employment situation is improving.
The number of people collecting unemployment insurance in Virginia hit a high last spring, when about 400,000 people in Virginia were receiving benefits. Now that number is down to about 100,000. Adam Blandin at Virginia Commonwealth University says there could be several reasons for this.
"Either people have found a job and so are no longer receiving benefits or people may have not yet found a job but their benefits expired after a certain point or people are still eligible for benefits except that they've stopped looking for work," Blandin explains.
The Virginia Employment Commission doesn't report why people stopped receiving claims, so we don't really know which of the potential reasons is more prevalent. But Terry Clower at George Mason University points out we do know what kind of jobs these people used to have.
"We still have a lot of folks out there in the hospitality, leisure, retail sector that are struggling because their businesses have not come back," he says. "Maybe they're working part-time when they used to work full time. So while this number is moving in the right direction it is not necessarily a reason to say our challenges are over."
Currently, the maximum unemployment benefit in Virginia is $378 a week. But that's not available indefinitely. The maximum duration for benefits is six months.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
