Virginia’s unemployment rate is currently at its lowest since May of 2008.
Virginia’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate this May is 3.8 percent, down by 1.1 percent since May of last year.
Last month, the unemployed population in Virginia was 158,192, which is the smallest number since June 2008.
James Wilson, Senior Economist at the Virginia Employment Commission, said data demonstrates that the aftermath of the 2008 economic recession has been lessening in the past six years.
“With a few exceptions, the [unemployment] rate has been steadily declining since it peaked in early 2010,” Wilson said in an email.
Luke Juday, Research and Policy Analyst at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, said the economic recession did not hit Virginia as strongly as other states, partially because many residents are employed by the government.
“Virginia has a pretty high proportion of federal employment, [and] we have a lot of federal dollars coming in,” Juday said. “Virginia has a lot of growth, especially in northern Virginia, as federal government expands.”
Within Charlottesville, seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment has increased in the past year. Overall, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for the Charlottesville metropolitan area is below 3.5 percent.
“The Charlottesville metro area’s unemployment is always, or almost always, below the state rate,” Wilson said.
Terance Rephann, Regional Economist from the Weldon Cooper Center, added that the local Charlottesville economy usually fares better than the state’s economy.
“In the state there is a lot of heterogeneity, particularly in more rural areas where unemployment is relatively elevated,” Rephann said. “[In the city] you have more service orientation, particularly professional technical services and highly-skilled labor.”
Juday added that the job growth in Charlottesville has been particularly strong due to its position as a college town.
“The University is a big part of the area economy in terms of the jobs it provides, the hospital especially, [it is] kind of our biggest industry here.” Juday said. “Charlottesville in the last ten years especially, started to add a lot more high-tech jobs and a lot more younger people. We have a much bigger population that are upper 20s, lower 30s than the city used to have.”
Charlottesville also has a very large service economy which bolsters the community.
President of Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, Timothy Hulbert, said in an email that there are as many as 5,000 jobs located in the downtown area alone.
“Leisure and hospitality has the third largest private sector employment, with 12,689 jobs — or 18.39 percent of all private sector employment in our region,” Hulbert said.
Hotels, the restaurant industry and tourism generate low-wage, low entry-level jobs, which keep the unemployment rate low and help maintain the economy, Juday added.
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