RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims significantly decreased in the latest filing week to 1,948 and remained at levels typically seen over the last twelve months.

For the filing week ending January 21, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,948, which is a decrease of 708 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were from construction, administrative and support and waste management, professional, scientific, and technical services, retail trade, and health care and social assistance. Continued weeks claimed totaled 11,371, which was an increase of 694 claims from the previous week and an increase of 51% from the 7,543 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 January 21, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 186,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 190,000 to 192,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 224,481 in the week ending January 21, a decrease of 63,849 (or -22.1 percent) from the previous week. There were 266,990 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022. Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (-15,033) was the largest decrease. New York’s weekly change (-4,795) was the second largest decrease. Ohio’s preliminary weekly change (-4,487) was the third largest decrease. Georgia’s weekly change (-4,114) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (-479) was the 29^th largest decrease.