RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of continued claims increased but remained at pre-pandemic levels during the most recent filing week.

For the filing week ending May 21, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,206. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 95 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims that had a self-reported industry were in accommodation and food services, health care and social assistance, administrative and waste services, and retail trade. 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 9,564, which was an increase of 1,053 claims from the previous week but was 82% lower than the 54,163 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

In the week ending May 21, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 210,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 218,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 183,927 in the week ending May 21, a decrease of 14,534 (or -7.3 percent) from the previous week. There were 416,310 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (-5,316) was the largest decrease. Illinois’s weekly change (-4,059) was the second largest decrease. Kentucky’s preliminary weekly change (-3,564) was the third largest decrease. New York’s weekly change (-1,409) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+97) was the 12th largest increase.