Jobs Gap Remains High at 282,000
Virginia registered a seasonally adjusted gain of 14,000 non-farm jobs in October, according to the latest employment data released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, unemployment ticked down to 6.4 percent, down slightly from 6.5 percent in September. However, the number of unemployed workers in Virginia grew slightly to 273,100.
“The strong jobs numbers are welcome news,” Michael J. Cassidy, President of The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. “We remain substantially below pre-recession employment levels, however, and our current rate of job growth still isn’t keeping pace with the growing size of the working age population. Those people need jobs, too, and as a result our jobs gap remains high at 282,000.”
Analysis of the new data shows:
- Since June 2009, the official end of the recession, Virginia has added only 19,000 jobs. Total employment then was 3.6 million jobs and remains at 3.6 million.
- When compared to pre-recession levels in December 2007, total employment in Virginia is down over 106,000 jobs.