RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today initial weekly claims of 1,861, and number of continued claims was 7,030. The continued weeks claims total rose slightly higher than the previous week but remains at pre-pandemic levels during the most recent filing week.

For the filing week ending April 16, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,861. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 72 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 7,030, which was an increase of 59 claims from the previous week and was 87% lower than the 55,273 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

In the week ending April 16, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was s 184,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 185,000 to 186,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 196,897 in the week ending April 16, a decrease of 27,235 (or -12.2 percent) from the previous week. There were 583,397 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Missouri’s preliminary weekly change (-7,656) was the largest decrease. Michigan’s weekly change (-3,681) was the second largest decrease. Ohio’s preliminary weekly change (-3,095) was the third largest decrease. New York’s weekly change (-2,893) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+91) was the eighth largest increase.