RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — With President Donald Trump looking to scale back the size of the federal workforce, new unemployment claims are skyrocketing in Virginia.
“We know where the pain is coming from. It’s coming from Trump and Elon Musk,” said House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth).
Virginia’s Department of Workforce Development and Advancement reported that in the first full week of March, 4,036 new unemployment claims were filed in Virginia — a 40% increase over the previous week and an 81% increase over the same time last year.
Of those 4,036 new claims, 566 were claims from federal workers through the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program.
“We are not seeing a skyrocketing, but of course what we are recognizing is that there are some federal employees who are filing for unemployment benefits,” Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) said.
Scott said the data is proof that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to cut the size of the federal government are having devastating impacts on Virginians.
“To see people championing and laughing and using props like chainsaws when they are hurting real people, their families, their children, that’s a shame,” Scott said.
However, citing unemployment data over the past two decades, Youngkin said the number of people filing for unemployment is not unusual, but adds that his administration is working to help fired federal workers find new jobs in Virginia.
“We are going to be running these Virginia Has Jobs initiatives all over the commonwealth, but we are going to be spending a particular amount of time in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia where most of our federal workers are,” Youngkin said.
It’s important to note that individuals file for unemployment in the state they worked in, not where they live.
That means the exact number of Virginians who have filed for unemployment remains unclear because Virginians may have worked in and filed for unemployment in other jurisdictions like Washington, D.C.
