RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims increased in the latest filing week to 1,886 but remained at levels typically seen over the last twelve months.

For the filing week ending March 4, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,886, which was an increase of 501 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were from manufacturing, administrative and support and waste management, professional, scientific, and technical services, and retail trade. Continued weeks claimed totaled 11,615, which was a decrease of 170 claims from the previous week but an increase of 78% from the 6,510 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 March 4, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 211,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 190,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 237,513 in the week ending March 4, an increase of 35,357 (or 17.5 percent) from the previous week. There were 219,875 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022. Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. New York’s preliminary weekly change (+16,363) was the largest increase. California’s weekly change (+10,489) was the second largest increase. Kentucky’s preliminary weekly change (+2,786) was the third largest increase. Oregon’s weekly change (+1,259) was the fourth largest increase. While most states had increases in claims, Rhode Island (-1,683) and Massachusetts had (-1,201) had significant decreases. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+724) was the 10th largest increase.