RICHMOND — The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims increased in the latest filing week to 1,876 and remained at levels typically seen over the last twelve months.

For the filing week ending March 25, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,876, which was an increase of 253 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, health care and social assistance, manufacturing, and retail trade. Continued weeks claimed totaled 11,758, which was a decrease of 23 claims from the previous week but an increase of 76% 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 25, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 198,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 191,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 223,913 in the week ending March 25, an increase of 10,906 (or 5.1 percent) from the previous week. There were 196,811 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022. Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Indiana’s preliminary weekly change (-2,142) was the largest decrease. Tennessee’s weekly change (-738) was the second largest decrease. Mississippi’s preliminary weekly change (-721) was the third largest decrease. Connecticut’s weekly change (-720) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+459) was the tenth largest increase.