For Release:
March 27, 2025
Contact:
Virginia Works
Economic Information & Analytics Division
LMI@virginiaworks.gov
(804) 786-7496

Virginia’s Latest Unemployment Insurance Weekly Initial Claims Down at 2,683; Continued Claims at 18,013

  • Virginia’s Latest Unemployment Insurance Weekly Initial Claims Down at 2,683; Continued Claims at 18,013

    RICHMOND— Virginia Works announced today that 2,683 unemployment insurance weekly initial claims were filed during the week ending March 22, 2025, which is 14.6 percent lower than last week’s 3,141 claims and 27.9 percent higher than the comparable week of last year (2,098).  Nearly 80 percent of claimants self-reported an associated industry; of those reported, the top five industries (63 percent) were Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (449); Administrative and Support and Waste Management (241); Manufacturing (204); Health Care and Social Assistance (203); and Retail Trade (194).

    Continued weeks claims (18,013) were 1.8 percent lower than last week (18,349) and were 16.2 percent higher than the comparable week of last year (15,497). Nearly 92 percent of claimants self-reported an associated industry; of those reported, the top five industries (59 percent) were Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (3,164); Administrative and Support and Waste Management (2,122); Health Care and Social Assistance (1,548); Manufacturing (1,519); and Retail Trade (1,381).

    Significant Layoffs and Announcements are available at the following websites:

    WARN Notices | Virginia Works

    Announcements | Virginia Economic Development Partnership

    Initial Claims – Comparison of Unemployment Insurance Activity
     Week Ending 03/22/2025Week Ending 03/15/2025Week Ending 03/08/2025Last Year 03/23/2024
    Initial Claims2,6833,141  4,036  2,098
    Initial Change (%)-458 (-14.6%)-895 (-22.2%)+1,155 (+40.1%)+585 (+27.9%)
    Continued Claims18,01318,349  17,681  15,497

    Virginia Continued Weeks Claimed

    A person who has already filed an initial claim and who has experienced a week of unemployment files a continued claim to claim benefits for that week of unemployment. On a weekly basis, continued claims reflect a good approximation of the current number of insured unemployed workers filing for UI benefits, and are a good indicator of labor market conditions.

    While continued claims are not a leading indicator, they provide confirming evidence of the direction of the economy.

    The color-coded map below shows the distribution of this week’s continued claims for Virginia’s counties and cities.

    Yellow represents low numbers, while progressively darker shades transitioning from yellow to green and dark green signify increasing numbers of continued claims. The legend located at the bottom provides the color spectrum and its corresponding count of continued claims.

    Initial Claims for All States

    In the week ending March 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 224,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 2,000 from 223,000 to 225,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 198,917 in the week ending March 22, a decrease of 8,481 (or 4.1 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 7,214 (or 3.5 percent) from the previous week. There were 193,923 initial claims in the comparable week in 2024.

    Initial State Claims (5 largest decreases)
    (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
     
    StateInitial Claims (this week)Initial Claims (prior week)Change
    Michigan5,3369,378-4,042
    Texas17,36319,243-1,880
    Mississippi8432,668-1,825
    California41,26242,717-1,455
    Pennsylvania9,3359,903-568
    Initial State Claims (5 largest increases)
    (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
     
    StateInitial Claims (this week)Initial Claims (prior week)Change
    Oregon5,2104,262948
    Kentucky2,4471,533914
    New York15,06314,434629
    Iowa2,2471,731516
    Tennessee3,0142,606408

    All States Initial Weeks Claimed

    An initial claim is a claim filed by an unemployed individual after a separation from an employer. The count of U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance is a leading economic indicator because it is an indication of emerging labor market conditions in the country.

    Below is a color-coded map illustrating the percentage change in initial claims from last week to this week across all states nationwide, derived from the latest U.S Department of Labor Weekly Claims News Release (https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf). Green denotes a reduction in continued claims from last week, thus showing improvement, with progressively darker shades of green signifying greater improvement. Purple denotes an increase in continued claims from last week, thus showing deterioration, with progressively darker shades of purple signifying greater deterioration. Very light green, purple or white indicates minimal change from last week. The legend at the bottom provides the color spectrum along with its corresponding percentage value.


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