RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims rose in the latest filing week to 2,734, their highest level since August of 2022 but still at the low, pre-Pandemic volumes of 2019.

For the filing week ending April 29, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 2,734, which was an increase of 896 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 health care and social assistance. Continued weeks claimed totaled 12,390, which was little changed from the previous week but an increase of 71% from the 7,253 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 April 29, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted[1] initial claims was 242,000, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 230,000 to 229,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 219,619 in the week ending April 29, a decrease of 5,518 (or -2.5 percent) from the previous week. There were 196,422 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 (-9,358) was the largest decrease. Illinois’s weekly change (-2,654) was the second largest decrease. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (-1,484) was the third largest decrease. New Jersey’s weekly change (-1,039) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+1,021) was the fourth largest increase.

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[1] Revision to U.S. Seasonal Adjustment Factors. Beginning with the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Weekly Claims News Release issued Thursday, April 6, 2023, the methodology used to seasonally adjust the national initial claims and continued claims reflects a change in the estimation of the models. For further questions on the seasonal adjustment methodology, please see the official release page for the UI claims seasonal adjustment factors or contact BLS directly through the Local Area Unemployment Statistics web contact form.