RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims rose in the latest filing week to 614, remaining at a historically low level.

For the filing week ending October 22, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 614, which is an increase of 237 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were in administrative support and waste management, professional, scientific, and technical services, health care and social assistance, manufacturing, and retail trade. Continued weeks claimed totaled 6,152, which was a decrease of seven claims from the previous week and 86% lower than the 44,840 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 22, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 217,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 214,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 183,301 in the week ending October 22, an increase of 4,512 (or 2.5 percent) from the previous week. There were 247,330 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 (+1,914) was the largest increase. Georgia’s weekly change (+1,120) was the second largest increase. Kentucky’s preliminary weekly change (+1,014) was the third largest increase. New Jersey’s weekly change (+1,000) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+359) was the 15th largest increase.