RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims decreased in the latest filing week to 2,293 but remained at the typical pre-Pandemic volumes experienced in 2019.

For the filing week ending July 22, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 2,293, which was a decrease of 131 claimants from the previous week. Continued weeks claimed totaled 13,714, which was 18 claims higher than the previous week and an increase of 25.7% from the 10,914 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Ninety-three percent of claimants self-reported an associated industry, of those reported over half (57 percent) of continued claims were from professional, scientific, and technical services (1,927), administrative and support and waste management (1,880), health care and social assistance (1,322), manufacturing (1,199), and accommodation and food services (1,015). 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 July 22, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 221,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 228,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs[1], unadjusted, totaled 213,677 in the week ending July 22, a decrease of 44,487 (or -17.2 percent) from the previous week. There were 200,929 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. California’s preliminary weekly change (-4,419) was the second largest decrease. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (-3,113) was the third largest decrease. Pennsylvania’s preliminary weekly change (-2,787) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (-22) was among the smallest decreases.