Virginia unemployment rate up slightly: But in general, jobs numbers look solid

The Virginia unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a percent in October, to 2.7 percent, as the labor force increased slightly, and the number of those without jobs increased by more than 3,000 people.

Virginia is still a full point below the national unemployment rate of 3.7 percent.

Overall, the state reports more than 4.2 million people with jobs, an increase of 92,673 since the beginning of the year.

“We continue to see economic indicators at the state level and nationally delivering mixed messages, but we should be encouraged by the slight pickup in establishment jobs in October,” said Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who, being a Republican, had to include in his statement on the jobs numbers a dig at “policies from Washington creating inflationary pressure and keeping Virginians out of the labor force,” without offering a single specific policy to critique.

One could just as easily point to the strong jobs numbers in Virginia as the foundation of how Democrats were able to maintain a 6-5 majority in the state’s U.S. House delegation, with Democratic wins in two of the three highly competitive races that Republicans had targeted, and Youngkin had thrown his political capital into.

The narrative going into the midterms was that people would cast their votes based on pocketbook issues, and it seems that in Virginia, they did.

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, was unchanged at 63.6 percent in October from the September revised rate.

With gas prices trending downward, and analysts suggesting that the national average for a gallon of gas likely to be below $3 a gallon come Christmas, we may be able to head off the recession that economists have been forecasting, and Republicans have been perversely hoping for.

“The unemployment rate has been in a narrow range of 2.6 to 2.8 percent for several months,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick. “However, there are many great jobs still waiting to be filled across the Commonwealth, and we remain focused on getting Virginians back in the labor market.”