Virginia Works – the Commonwealth’s Department of Workforce Development and Advancement – last week announced that, according to the Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in July decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.7 percent, which is 0.4 percentage points above the rate from a year ago. This rate is 0.4 percentage points below the national unemployment rate, which decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 4.1 percent.
The Commonwealth’s labor force participation rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 63 percent in July. The labor force participation rate measures the proportion of the civilian population age 16 and older that is employed or actively looking for work.
Month-over-month industry
In July’s Current Employment Statistics Survey, Virginia’s nonagricultural employment decreased by 9,600 to 4,232,200. June’s preliminary estimate of employment, after revision, decreased by 1,900 to 4,241,800. In July, private sector employment decreased by 3,000 to 3,474,500 while government employment decreased by 6,600 to 757,700. Within that sector, federal government jobs decreased by 600 to 169,900, state government employment decreased by 200 to 168,200, and local government decreased by 5,800 to 419,600 over the month.
Seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment data is produced for 11 industry sectors. In July, four experienced over-the-month job gains, and seven experienced a decline. The largest job gain occurred in Leisure and Hospitality (+2,500) to 423,300. The second largest job gain occurred in Financial Activities (+1,300) to 221,500. The third largest job gain occurred in Education and Health Services (+600) to 629,600. The other gain was in Manufacturing (+400) to 229,000.
The largest job loss occurred in Government (-6,600) to 757,700. The second largest job loss occurred in Professional and Business Services (-3,400) to 784,700. The third largest job loss occurred in Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (-1,400) to 692,800. The other losses were in Construction (-1,300) to 224,800; Miscellaneous Services (-1,300) to 197,300; Information (-300) to 65,100; and Mining and Logging (-100) to 6,400.
