RICHMOND—Virginia Works (the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement) announced today that the number of initial unemployment insurance claims edged up in the latest filing week to 2,229 and was at typical pre-pandemic volumes.

For the filing week ending March 9, seasonally unadjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in Virginia totaled 2,229, which was an increase of 55 claimants from the previous week. Continued weeks claimed totaled 15,629, which was a decrease of 198 claimants from the previous week but an increase of 32 percent from the 11,837 continued claims from the comparable week last year. An industry was reported for ninety-three percent of continued claims. Of those, over half (57 percent) of continued claims were from administrative and support and waste management (2,145), professional, scientific, and technical services (2,096), construction (1,445), manufacturing (1,306), and health care and social assistance (1,272). 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 March 9, the U.S. advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was s 209,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 7,000 from 217,000 to 210,000. The advance number of actual U.S. initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 199,952 in the week ending March 9, a decrease of 14,472 (or -6.7 percent) from the previous week. There were 210,665 initial claims in the comparable week in 2023.

Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (+968) was the largest increase. Oregon’s preliminary weekly change (+943) was the second largest increase. Indiana’s preliminary weekly change (+430) was the third largest increase. Iowa’s preliminary weekly change (+373) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia and Alabama were tied with the eleventh largest decrease (-97).