Virginia Unemployment Insurance Weekly Initial Claims at 1,131; Administrative and Waste Services and Accommodations and Food Service Leading Industries for Claims

RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of continued claims rose slightly, remaining at pre-pandemic levels during the most recent filing week.

For the filing week ending June 4, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 1,131. The latest claims figure was a decrease of 245 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims that had a self-reported industry were in administrative and waste services, accommodation and food services, health care and social assistance, professional, scientific, and technical services, and retail trade. 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.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 9,768, which was an increase of 342 claims from the previous week and was 81% lower than the 50,261 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

In the week ending June 4, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 229,000, an increase of 27,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 2,000 from 200,000 to 202,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 184,604 in the week ending June 4, an increase of 1,008 (or 0.5 percent) from the previous week. There were 364,577 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. Looking at preliminary data, the majority of U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Georgia’s preliminary weekly change (+1,817) was the largest increase. Florida’s weekly change (+1,695) was the second largest increase. Pennsylvania’s preliminary weekly change (+1,089) was the third largest increase. Missouri’s weekly change (+840) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change
(-84) was the 19th largest decrease.