RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims decreased in the latest filing week to 1,623 and remained at levels typically seen over the last twelve months.

For the filing week ending March 18, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,623, which was a decrease of 77 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, health care and social assistance, and manufacturing. Continued weeks claimed totaled 11,781, which was a decrease of 56 claims from the previous week but an increase of 70% from the 6,954 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 18, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 191,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 192,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 213,425 in the week ending March 18, a decrease of 4,659 (or -2.1 percent) from the previous week. There were 182,339 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 (-2,411) was the largest decrease. Illinois’s weekly change (-1,135) was the second largest decrease. New York’s preliminary weekly change (-1,026) was the third largest decrease. New Jersey’s weekly change (-838) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+84) was the 12th largest increase.