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 03/22/2025	Week Ending 03/15/2025	Week Ending 03/08/2025	Last Year 03/23/2024
Initial Claims	2,683	3,141	4,036	2,098
Initial Change (%)	-458 (-14.6%)	-895 (-22.2%)	+1,155 (+40.1%)	+585 (+27.9%)
Continued Claims	18,013	18,349	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)

State	Initial Claims (this week)	Initial Claims (prior week)	Change
Michigan	5,336	9,378	-4,042
Texas	17,363	19,243	-1,880
Mississippi	843	2,668	-1,825
California	41,262	42,717	-1,455
Pennsylvania	9,335	9,903	-568

Initial State Claims (5 largest increases) (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

State	Initial Claims (this week)	Initial Claims (prior week)	Change
Oregon	5,210	4,262	948
Kentucky	2,447	1,533	914
New York	15,063	14,434	629
Iowa	2,247	1,731	516
Tennessee	3,014	2,606	408

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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