RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims increased in the latest filing week to 925, remaining at a historically low level.

For the filing week ending November 19, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 925, which is an increase of 324 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were from administrative support and waste management, professional, scientific, and technical services, construction, retail trade, and manufacturing. Continued weeks claimed totaled 7,490, which was an increase of 332 claims from the previous week, but little changed from the 7,312 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 19, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 240,000, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 222,000 to 223,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 248,185 in the week ending November 19, an increase of 47,909 (or 23.9 percent) from the previous week. There were 253,369 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Illinois’s preliminary weekly change (+7,306) was the largest increase. California’s weekly change (+5,024) was the second largest increase. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (+3,434) was the third largest increase. Minnesota’s weekly change (+3,245) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+561) was the 21st largest increase.