RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims decreased in the latest filing week to 2,317 and remained at the typical pre-Pandemic volumes experienced in 2019.

For the filing week ending June 3, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 2,317, which was a decrease of 84 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, accommodation and food services, and health care and social assistance. Continued weeks claimed totaled 12,685, which was 136 claims lower than the previous week but an increase of a 30% from the 9,768 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 June 3, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 261,000, an increase of 28,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the highest level for initial claims since October 30, 2021, when it was 264,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 232,000 to 233,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 219,391 in the week ending June 3, an increase of 10,535 (or 5.0 percent) from the previous week. There were 186,568 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022. Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Connecticut’s preliminary weekly change (-2,350) was the largest decrease. New York’s weekly change (-1,243) was the second largest decrease. New Jersey’s preliminary weekly change (-830) was the third largest decrease. Florida’s weekly change (-631) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+10) was the 25th largest increase.