Through the month of March, Virginia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was rated at 2.9 percent, below the national unemployment rate of 3.8 percent last month. March’s jobless rate showed year-over-year improvements as the metric was 3.3 percent in March 2018.
The Commonwealth’s labor force expanded for the ninth consecutive month by 5,379, or 0.1 percent, to set a new record high of 4,360,317, as the number of unemployed increased by 2,089, the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) reports.
Seasonally-adjusted non-farm employment increased by 8,000 jobs in March after February’s figures were revised downward by 400, contributing to what was already a less-than-stellar month for job creation following the effects of the beginning of the year partial federal government shutdown.
The largest job gains in March occurred in professional and business services, which increased by 5,000 jobs. The second largest gain was seen in private education and health services, which experienced a gain of 2,800 jobs.
Other employment gains happened in the leisure and hospitality sector with 1,100 jobs; government with 800 jobs; trade and transportation and information technology, which gained 400 jobs each.
Sectors that saw a decline in employment were financial services with 1,200 jobs lost; construction and manufacturing with 500 jobs lost each; and miscellaneous services with 300 jobs lost.
For the ten metropolitan areas around Virginia, nine of them experienced over-the-month job gains in March, while one was hit with losses. Northern Virginia gained 6,000 jobs; the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News area gained 1,100 jobs; Roanoke added 500 jobs; the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford region gained 400 jobs; Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, and Winchester added 300 jobs each; and the Staunton-Waynesboro area gained 200 jobs.
The only area in the Commonwealth that experienced job loss was in Richmond, which lost 600 jobs. The Richmond metropolitan area, however, is ranked second overall with year-over gains among the regions with a gain of 5,100 jobs since March 2018.
The VEC reported earlier this year that employment projections through 2024 show that the Commonwealth’s economy is set to grow 9.4 percent, exceeding the forecast national growth rate of 6.5 percent.