RICHMOND—The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today that the number of initial claims fell again in the latest filing week to 610, remaining at a historically low level.

For the filing week ending October 1, the figure for seasonally unadjusted initial claims in Virginia was 610, which is a decrease of 343 claimants from the previous week. Over half of initial claims with a self-reported industry were in administrative support and waste management, professional, scientific, and technical services, health care and social assistance and retail trade. Continued weeks claimed totaled 8,754, which was a decrease of 809 claims from the previous week and 80% lower than the 44,019 continued claims from the comparable week last year.

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 October 1, the advance U.S. figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 219,000, an increase of 29,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 3,000 from 193,000 to 190,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 167,083 in the week ending October 1, an increase of 13,264 (or 8.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 261,927 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. Missouri’s preliminary weekly change (+3,749) was the largest increase. Massachusetts’s weekly change    (+2,206) was the second largest increase. California’s preliminary weekly change (+1,796) was the third largest increase. North Carolina’s weekly change (+1,564) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia’s preliminary weekly change (-213) was the seventh largest decrease.