RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims decreased in the latest filing week to 1,700 and remained at levels typically seen over the last twelve months.

For the filing week ending March 11, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,700, which was a decrease of 186 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were from professional, scientific, and technical services, administrative and support and waste management, manufacturing, and retail trade. Continued weeks claimed totaled 11,837, which was an increase of 222 claims from the previous week and an increase of 77% from the 6,684 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 11, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 192,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 211,000 to 212,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 217,444 in the week ending March 11, a decrease of 21,396 (or -9.0 percent) from the previous week. There were 203,911 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022. Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. New York’s preliminary weekly change (-15,305) was the largest decrease. California’s weekly change (-2,312) was the second largest decrease. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (-1,189) was the third largest decrease. Oregon’s weekly change (-1,129) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+25) was the 15th largest increase.