The number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits in the Virgin Islands has risen sharply from a year ago, with new federal data showing 422 continued claims for the week ending Sept. 12, compared with 332 during the comparable week in 2025.
The increase of 90 claims represents a 27.1 percent year-over-year rise, according to the U.S. Employment and Training Administration’s latest State Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims data, updated Friday. Continued claims, also called insured unemployment, measure people who have already filed an initial unemployment claim and subsequently claimed benefits for another week of unemployment. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.
The latest count also continues an upward movement seen over the past several weeks. Continued claims stood at 334 for the week ending Aug. 15, increased to 402 the following week, reached 410 for Aug. 29 and 414 for Sept. 5 before climbing to 422 for Sept. 12. That represents an increase of 88 claims, or approximately 26.3 percent, in four weeks. Because the figures are not seasonally adjusted, however, short-term movements can be affected by normal seasonal patterns and should not by themselves be interpreted as evidence of a sustained deterioration in the labor market.
The territory’s insured unemployment rate has moved higher alongside the increase in continued claims. It reached 1.24 percent for the week ending Sept. 12, up from 1.22 percent a week earlier and 0.93 percent during the comparable period a year ago. The rate was 0.98 percent as recently as Aug. 15.
That figure is different from the unemployment rate commonly cited as a broad measure of the labor market. The insured unemployment rate is calculated by dividing continued unemployment insurance claims by employment covered under the unemployment insurance system. It therefore measures the share of covered workers receiving continuing benefits rather than the share of the entire labor force that is unemployed.
Importantly, the latest data do not show a corresponding year-over-year surge in people newly applying for unemployment benefits. The Virgin Islands recorded 57 initial claims for the week ending Sept. 19, compared with 54 during the preceding week and 70 during the comparable period a year earlier. Initial claims were therefore approximately 18.6 percent below their year-ago level. The Employment and Training Administration describes initial claims as a measure of “emerging unemployment,” while continued claims capture people who remain in the unemployment insurance system.
Taken together, the figures show that while fewer new claims were filed than during the same period last year, the number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits was substantially higher. The federal data do not establish why the increase has occurred, and the claims figures alone cannot determine whether recipients are remaining unemployed longer, whether seasonal employment patterns are contributing to the increase, or whether other factors are responsible.
The new claims figures add another dimension to a mixed set of recent federal employment indicators for the territory. Preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates put total Virgin Islands nonfarm wage and salary employment at 32,400 jobs in August, up from 31,800 in July but 3.6 percent below August 2025. Leisure and hospitality employment was estimated at 5,300 jobs in August, down 19.7 percent from a year earlier.
Those monthly estimates differ from another federal dataset highlighted by the Consortium earlier this month. The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages showed jobs covered by unemployment insurance increasing 1.2 percent year over year to approximately 34,900 in March 2026. The different results reflect, in part, different federal employment programs, methodologies and reporting periods, underscoring why no single measure provides a complete picture of the territory’s labor market.
The next weekly update to the Virgin Islands continued-claims series is scheduled for Oct. 2, providing another reading on whether the recent increase persists.
