RICHMOND—The Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement (DWDA) announced today that the number of initial unemployment insurance claims increased in the latest filing week to 1,730 and remained at typical pre-Pandemic volumes experienced in 2019.

For the filing week ending November 4, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in Virginia was 1,730, which was a decrease of 70 claimants from the previous week. Continued weeks claimed totaled 12,341, which was unchanged from the previous week and an increase of 78% from the 6,951 continued claims from the comparable week last year. An industry was reported for ninety-three percent of continued claims. Of those, over half (53 percent) of continued claims were from professional, scientific, and technical services (1,851), administrative and support and waste management (1,715), manufacturing (1,410), and health care and social assistance (1,096). 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 November 4, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 217,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 3,000 from 217,000 to 220,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 213,132 in the week ending November 4, an increase of 13,826 (or 6.9 percent) from the previous week. There were 206,079 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022.

Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (+3,416) was the largest increase. New York’s preliminary weekly change (+2,457) was the second largest increase. Pennsylvania’s preliminary weekly change (+1,677) was the third largest increase. Minnesota’s preliminary weekly change (+1,510) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia had the fourth largest decrease (-314).

Unemployment insurance trend maps are unavailable this week.