RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims declined in the latest filing week to 757, remaining at a historically low level.

For the filing week ending November 5, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 757, which is a decrease of nine claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were administrative support and waste management, professional, scientific, and technical services, manufacturing, health care and social assistance, and retail trade. Continued weeks claimed totaled 6,951, which was an increase of 576 claims from the previous week but 72% lower than the 24,922 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 November 5, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 225,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 217,000 to 218,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 205,027 in the week ending November 5, an increase of 19,054 (or 10.2 percent) from the previous week. There were 257,033 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (+3,992) was the largest increase. Kentucky’s weekly change (+3,453) was the second largest increase. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (+1,957) was the third largest increase. Indiana’s weekly change (+1,313) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+189) was the 23rd largest increase.