RICHMOND — The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims decreased in the latest filing week to 1,597 and remained at levels typically seen over the last twelve months.

For the filing week ending February 18, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,597, which was a decrease of 218 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were from administrative and support and waste management, professional, scientific, and technical services, retail trade, manufacturing, and construction. Continued weeks claimed totaled 11,675, which was a decrease of 126 claims from the previous week but an increase of 61% from the 7,258 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 February 18, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 192,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 194,000 to 195,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 210,867 in the week ending February 18, a decrease of 14,465 (or -6.4 percent) from the previous week. There were 215,978 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 (-4,276) was the largest decrease. Michigan’s weekly change (-2,615) was the second largest decrease. New York’s preliminary weekly change (-1,938) was the third largest decrease. Minnesota’s weekly change (-1,445) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+297) was the sixth largest increase.