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 1,945 but remained slightly below typical pre-pandemic volumes experienced in 2019.

For the filing week ending December 2, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in Virginia was 1,945, which was an increase of 841 claimants from the previous week. Falling after a holiday week likely played a part in the large increase. Continued weeks claimed totaled 11,984, which was an increase from the previous week and an increase of 52% from the 7,899 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 professional, scientific, and technical services (1,729), administrative and support and waste management (1,708), manufacturing (1,307), and health care and social assistance (1,068). 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 December 2, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 220,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 218,000 to 219,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 293,511 in the week ending December 2, an increase of 93,761 (or 46.9 percent) from the previous week. There were 287,976 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022.

Looking at preliminary data for the week after Thanksgiving week, most U.S. states reported large increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (+14,057) was the largest increase. New York’s preliminary weekly change (+9,343) was the second largest increase. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (+7,698) was the third largest increase. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (+6,481) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia had the 26^th largest increase (+739).