RICHMOND—The Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement (DWDA) announced today that the number of initial unemployment insurance claims declined in the latest filing week to 1,104 and remained slightly below typical pre-pandemic volumes experienced in 2019.

For the filing week ending November 25, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in Virginia was 1,104, which was a decrease of 666 claimants from the previous week. Falling on a holiday week likely played a part in the large drop. Continued weeks claimed totaled 11,522, which was a decrease from the previous week but an increase of 57% from the 7,347 continued claims from the comparable week last year. An industry was reported for ninety-three percent of continued claims. Of those, over half (52 percent) of continued claims were from administrative and support and waste management (1,676), professional, scientific, and technical services (1,675), manufacturing (1,190), and health care and social assistance (1,031). 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 25, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was s 218,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 209,000 to 211,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 198,843 in the week ending November 25, a decrease of 42,136 (or -17.5 percent) from the previous week. There were 199,323 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022.

Looking at preliminary data covering Thanksgiving week, most U.S. states reported large decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (-13,806) was the largest decrease. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-6,017) was the second largest decrease. Oregon’s preliminary weekly change (-2,959) was the third largest decrease. Florida’s preliminary weekly change (-2,451) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia had the 21^st largest decrease (-627).