RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced that the number of continued claims filed during the March 6 filing week decreased by 1,729 claims from the previous filing week, according to figures released today.

For the filing week ending March 6, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 13,736. The latest claims figure was an increase of 1,581 claimants from the previous week.

For the most recent filing week, continued weeks claimed totaled 62,269, which was a 2.7% decrease from the previous week, but 39,555 higher than the 22,714 continued claims from the comparable week last year. Over half of claims that had a self-reported industry were in the accommodation/food service, retail trade, administrative and waste services, and healthcare/social assistance industries. The continued claims total is mainly comprised of those recent initial claimants who continued to file for unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For additional information on who is claiming unemployment insurance in Virginia, access the VEC’s U.I. claims data dashboard (https://www.vec.virginia.gov/ui-claims-dashboard) that is updated no later than the following Monday after the weekly claims press release.

Nationwide, in the week ending March 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 712,000, a decrease of 42,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 9,000 from 745,000 to 754,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 709,458 in the week ending March 6, a decrease of 47,170 (or -6.2 percent) from the previous week. There were 200,382 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. Looking at preliminary data, most states reported decreases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. New York’s preliminary weekly change (-12,968) was the largest decrease among states. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (-11,014) was the second largest decrease. Mississippi’s preliminary weekly change (-10,937) was the third largest decrease. Illinois’s preliminary weekly change (-6,487) was the fourth largest decrease. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (+7,450) was the second largest increase.