Unemployment Claims

Unemployment initial claims serve as an indicator of economic health.  This data measures the number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time. It provides policymakers and economists with the timeliest data about labor market conditions, often foreshadowing broader economic conditions that are reported on a monthly basis in state and federal job reports and databases.

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About the Data

1. This data represents place of residence of the worker filing a claim. It does not represent place of work where the claim would be initially filed.

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2. Federally filed claims have reporting delays of several weeks or months because a claim is not classified as a federal (UCFE) claim until federal wages are confirmed. Therefore, the large number of federal layoffs that have occurred in early 2025 have yet to be reported in the Department of Labor's data for the U.S. and the states. 

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3. County level unemployment claims data is published on a monthly basis by the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The Commonwealth will soon be publishing county level claims on a weekly basis.  Once the state begins publishing the weekly data, NVRC will publish Northern Virginia and local jurisdiction data on this dashboard.  The monthly data will not be available for March until late April, as it has a one month lag.

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***Friday Updates***

Place of residence claims data is released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Fridays.

This dashboard is updated on Fridays.