Governor Glenn Youngkin announces unemployment rate remains unchanged at 2.6%

RICHMOND, VA — Governor Glenn Youngkin announced that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.6%, representing a 1.0 percentage point decline below last year’s rate and remaining below the national unemployment rate of 3.5 percent. The number of unemployed residents decreased by 885 to 113,220, representing the fewest Virginians unemployed since June of 2001.

According to BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics, the number of employed residents rose by 993 to 4,233,716. Simultaneously, the labor force population increased by 108 to 4,356,936. The Commonwealth’s labor force participation rate, which measures the proportion of the civilian population age 16 and older that is employed or actively looking for work, declined by 0.1 percentage point to 63.6% in September and remains below the pre-pandemic rate of 66.3%.

“Very little changed in September. We remain focused on returning Virginians to the workforce and implementing policies that get Virginians off the sidelines,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “We will continue our efforts to build our workforce to meet the many opportunities for great jobs in the Commonwealth.”

“With 113,220 unemployed residents, Virginia is approaching numbers we haven’t seen since June of 2001,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick. “With a strong job market in Virginia, our top priority is getting more Virginians into the labor force.”

“The September unemployment rate of 2.6% is nearly a percentage point below that of the entire United States,” said Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater. “We have many job opportunities available across Virginia, and fostering cooperation between Virginia businesses with our citizens in the Commonwealth is paramount to returning more people to the workforce.”

Virginia nonfarm payrolls rose by 8,000 jobs in September to 4,093,600, according to BLS Current Employment Statistics data, from September 2021 to September 2022. BLS estimates that establishments in Virginia gained 134,700 jobs, an increase of 3.4 percent. In September, the split between the private and public sectors showed a year-over-year gain of 119,700 jobs and 15,000 jobs, respectively.

Compared to a year ago, on a seasonally adjusted basis, ten of eleven major industry divisions experienced employment increases while one saw an employment decrease.

The largest over-the-year job gain occurred in Leisure and Hospitality, up 36,000 jobs (+9.7%). The second-largest over-the-year job gain occurred in Education and Health Services, up 34,800 jobs (+6.5%). The third largest over-the-year job gain occurred in Trade, Transportation, and Utilities, up 19,300 jobs (+2.9%). Other job gains occurred in Professional and Business Services (+17,600 jobs); Government (+15,000 jobs); Information (+4,500); Miscellaneous (+4,200 jobs); Construction (+3,700 jobs); Manufacturing (+3,400) and Mining and Logging (+400 jobs). Within Government, Local (+9,400 jobs), State (+4,400 jobs), and Federal employment increased (+1,200 jobs). The only job losses occurred in Finance (-4,200 jobs) to 206,200.

For more information, visit the Virginia Employment Commission’s website at vec.virginia.gov.