Amid the continued severe lockdowns and restrictions imposed by Governor Northam, the number of initial jobless claims filed last week here in Virginia, jumped a staggering 64.3% to more than 19,000… that according to figures released on Thursday by the Virginia Employment Commission. For the week ending January 2, 19,530 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment, an increase of 7,640 claimants from the previous week. The regions of the state that have been most impacted continue to be Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. In states without such harsh restrictions… many in fact with much lower COVID-19 positive test results too.. the figures are much different. Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for last week was 787,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.