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

For the filing week ending July 2, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 827. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 727 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims that had a self-reported industry were in administrative and support and waste management, health care and social assistance, retail trade, professional, scientific and technical services, and accommodation and food services. 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 9,834, which was a decrease of 182 claims from the previous week but was 74% lower than the 37,790 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

In the week ending July 2, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 235,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 231,000. There were 382,622 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 219,507 in the week ending July 2, an increase of 11,919 (or 5.7 percent) from the previous week. There were 382,622 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. Looking at preliminary data, the majority of U.S. states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Illinois’s preliminary weekly change (-1,533) was the largest decrease. Kentucky’s weekly change (-1,199) was the second largest decrease. Ohio’s preliminary weekly change (-1,142) was the third largest decrease. Missouri’s weekly change (-1,069) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+2) was the 22nd largest increase.