RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of continued claims fell slightly, remaining at pre-pandemic levels during the most recent filing week.

For the filing week ending March 26, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,627. The latest claims figure was an increase of 81 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims that had a self-reported industry were in administrative and waste services, retail trade, professional, scientific, and technical services, and health care and social assistance. Eligibility for benefits is determined on a weekly basis, and so not all weekly claims filed result in a benefit payment. This is because the initial claims numbers represent claim applications; claims are then reviewed for eligibility and legitimacy.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 6,684, which was a decrease of 270 claims from the previous week and was 88% lower than the 57,072 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

For additional information on who is claiming unemployment insurance in Virginia, access the VEC’s    U.I. claims data dashboard (https://www.vec.virginia.gov/ui-claims-dashboard) that is updated no later than the following Monday after the weekly claims press release.

In the week ending March 26, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 202,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 187,000 to 188,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 195,460 in the week ending March 26, an increase of 13,121 (or 7.2 percent) from the previous week. There were 723,653 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Kentucky’s preliminary weekly change (-2,048) was the largest decrease. Pennsylvania’s preliminary weekly change (-793) was the second largest decrease. Florida’s weekly change (-373) was the third largest decrease. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (-250) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+263) was the 13th largest increase.