RICHMOND—The Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement (DWDA) announced today that the number of initial unemployment insurance claims rose in the latest filing week to 2,883 but remained slightly below typical pre-pandemic volumes experienced in 2019.

For the filing week ending January 13, seasonally unadjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in Virginia were 2,883, which was an increase of 101 claimants from the previous week. Continued weeks claimed totaled 13,415, which was an increase from the previous week and an increase of 26 percent from the 10,677 continued claims from the comparable week last year. An industry was reported for ninety-three percent of continued claims. Of those, over half (57 percent) of continued claims were from administrative and support and waste management (1,876), professional, scientific, and technical services (1,762), construction (1,260), manufacturing (1,163), and health care and social assistance (1,122). 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 January 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 187,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since September 24, 2022 when it was 182,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 202,000 to 203,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 289,228 in the week ending January 13, a decrease of 29,543 (or -9.3 percent) from the previous week. There were 288,330 initial claims in the comparable week in 2023.

Looking at preliminary data, most U.S. states reported increases on a seasonally unadjusted basis. California’s preliminary weekly change (+2,994) was the largest increase. Texas’s preliminary weekly change (+1,561) was the second largest increase. Iowa’s preliminary weekly change (+1,273) was the third largest increase. Kansas’s preliminary weekly change (+1,043) was the fourth largest increase. Virginia had the 24^th largest increase (+111).