RICHMOND — The Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement (DWDA) announced today that the number of initial unemployment insurance claims decreased in the latest filing week to 1,669 but remained slightly below typical pre-pandemic volumes experienced in 2019.

For the filing week ending December 9, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in Virginia was 1,669, which was a decrease of 276 claimants from the previous week. Continued weeks claimed totaled 12,007, which was little changed from the previous week but an increase of 39% from the 8,620 continued claims from the comparable week last year. An industry was reported for ninety-three percent of continued claims. Of those, over half (51 percent) of continued claims were from professional, scientific, and technical services (1,759), administrative and support and waste management (1,701), manufacturing (1,172), and health care and social assistance (1,071). 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 9, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 202,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 220,000 to 221,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 248,299 in the week ending December 9, a decrease of 46,316 (or -15.7 percent) from the previous week. There were 250,038 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 (-6,581) was the largest decrease. Pennsylvania’s preliminary weekly change (-4,362) was the second largest decrease. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-4,333) was the third largest decrease. Oregon’s preliminary weekly change (-3,750) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia had the 18th largest decrease (-527).