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 July 9, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,710. The latest claims figure was an increase of 883 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims that had a self-reported industry were in administrative and support and waste management, manufacturing, health care and social assistance, professional, scientific and technical 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 10,108, which was an increase of 274 claims from the previous week but was 72% lower than the 36,337 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

In the week ending July 9, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 244,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 235,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 241,314 in the week ending July 9, an increase of 21,384 (or 9.7 percent) from the previous week. There were 388,662 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. Looking at preliminary data, the majority of U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. New York’s preliminary weekly change (+10,209) was the largest increase. Kentucky’s weekly change (+3,091) was the second largest increase. Indiana’s preliminary weekly change (+2,431) was the third largest increase. Arizona’s weekly change (+2,295) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+1,077) was the ninth largest increase.