RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims increased in the latest filing week to 3,142 but remained at the typical pre-Pandemic volumes experienced in 2019.

For the filing week ending June 10, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 3,142, which was an increase of 825 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, accommodation and food services, and retail trade. Continued weeks claimed totaled 12,788, which was 103 claims higher than the previous week and an increase of 40.5% from the 9,101 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 10, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 262,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 261,000 to 262,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 249,212 in the week ending June 10, an increase of 28,763 (or 13.0 percent) from the previous week. There were 205,890 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022. Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (+7,123) was the largest increase. Minnesota’s weekly change (+3,664) was the second largest increase. Pennsylvania’s preliminary weekly change (+3,380) was the third largest increase. Georgia’s weekly change (+1,658) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+949) was the twelfth largest increase.