Marking its lowest point since April 2001, Virginia’s unemployment rate held steady from November to December at 2.8 percent, the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) reported. The metric has ticked down by 0.8 percent since December 2017 when the state’s jobless rate was 3.6 percent.
The state’s labor force increased for the third straight month, with the number of people counted as unemployed declining by 740 to 123,180.
Virginia had the seventh-lowest rate among the U.S. states in December, along with Minnesota and Nebraska, also the lowest among the southeastern states, and the third-lowest in the eastern portion of the country.
Currently, the highest jobless rate in Virginia is found in the City of Petersburg at 5.3 percent, with the lowest in Arlington County at 1.8 percent.
Throughout the Commonwealth, there are 176,595 jobs available and just 66,185 candidates to fill them, according to VEC. Therefore, there are just 0.4 people for every employment opportunity.
Out of the approximately 3,896,196 employed persons, adjusting for seasonal employment, the average hourly wage among Virginians is $27.05. With the average number of hours worked per week at just under 37, the average weekly wage over the past year was $1,082, equating to $56,264 over 12 months.
The highest weekly wages in the state are found in Goochland County at $1,762. The lowest weekly wages in the state are found in Matthews County at just $550.
Every metropolitan area in Virginia had positive year-over-year employment growth, ranging from three percent in Winchester to 0.8 percent in Northern Virginia.
In the Richmond metropolitan area, VEC states that job growth from November to December was flat, leading to just a 1.7 percent growth rate.
In 2018, Virginia increased its employment numbers by 75,100 non-farm positions – an increase in employment of 1.9 percent. In a December report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) analyzing year-over-year net changes in employment in all states, Virginia was one of just a dozen states that saw over 69,000 jobs created over the course of the past year.
The VEC reports that employment projections through 2024 show that the Commonwealth’s economy is set to grow 9.4 percent, exceeding the national growth rate of 6.5 percent.