RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims fell again in the latest filing week to 482, remaining at a historically low level.

For the filing week ending October 8, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 482, which is a decrease of 128 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were in administrative support and waste management, manufacturing, professional, scientific, and technical services, construction, and health care and social assistance. Continued weeks claimed totaled 6,172, which was a decrease of 2,582 claims from the previous week and 87% lower than the 46,467 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

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.

In the week ending October 8, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 228,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 219,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 199,662 in the week ending October 8, an increase of 32,275 (or 19.3 percent) from the previous week. There were 280,597 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. Possibly influenced by the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Florida’s preliminary weekly change (+10,368) was the largest increase. California’s weekly change (+5,512) was the second largest increase. New York’s preliminary weekly change (+3,538) was the third largest increase. Texas’s weekly change (+2,359) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+702) was the thirteenth largest increase.