The Virginia unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.3 percent in January while total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 4,900

RICHMOND— Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.3 percent in January, 1.5 percentage points below the rate from a year ago. According to household survey data in January, the labor force increased by 16,461 to 4,277,757, as the number of unemployed residents decreased by 1,892 to 139,261. The number of employed residents rose by 18,353 to 4,138,496. Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate continues to be below the national rate, which rose from 3.9 to 4.0 percent. The Commonwealth’s labor force participation rate increased slightly by 0.3 percentage points to 62.9 percent in January. The labor force participation rate measures the proportion of the civilian population age 16 and older that is employed or actively looking for work.

Virginia nonagricultural wage and salary employment, from the monthly establishment survey, fell by 4,900 jobs in January to 3,989,500. December’s preliminary estimate was revised upwards by 6,300, adding to that month’s job gain. In January, private sector employment decreased by 600 jobs to 3,280,300 while public sector payrolls decreased by 4,300 jobs to 709,200. Much of the decrease within that sector occurred in state government (-4,000 jobs), but employment also fell in local government (-500 jobs). Federal government employment rose by 200 jobs.

Employment rose in four of eleven major industry sectors, declined in six and was unchanged in one. The largest job gain during January occurred in professional and business services with an increase of 1,900 jobs to 785,500. The second largest increase occurred in education and health services (+1,300 jobs) to 540,600. The last two industries with job gains were trade and transportation (+1,100 jobs) to 663,100 and information (+100 jobs) to 67,700. The largest job loss during January occurred in government (-4,300 jobs) to 709,200. Within government, state government and local government lost 4,000 and 500 jobs respectively, while federal government gained 200 jobs. The second largest job loss occurred in finance which lost 2,000 jobs down to 208,000. Other losses occurred in leisure and hospitality services (-1,600 jobs) to 383,700, construction (-900 jobs) to 203,600, miscellaneous services (-300 jobs) to 186,200, and manufacturing (-200 jobs) to 234,800. Mining was the only industry that remained unchanged in January at 7,100 jobs.

Nonfarm Employment in Virginia*
Seasonally Adjusted

*Current month’s estimates are preliminary.

From January 2021 to January 2022, the VEC estimates that establishments in Virginia gained 89,800 jobs, an increase of 2.3 percent. In January, the private sector recorded an over-the-year gain of 83,400 jobs, while employment in the public sector gained 6,400 jobs.

Compared to a year ago, on a seasonally adjusted basis, eight of eleven major industry divisions experienced employment increases while three saw employment decrease. The largest over-the-year job gain occurred in leisure and hospitality, up 46,200 jobs (+13.7%). The next largest over-the-year job gain occurred in professional and business services, up 17,700 jobs (+2.3%). Other job gains occurred in trade and transportation (+10,700 jobs), education and health services (+7,800 jobs), and government (+6,400 jobs). Within government, only local government saw an increase in employment (+11,100 jobs) while state (-4,500 jobs) and federal government (-200 jobs) both lost jobs over the year. The largest job decrease over the year occurred in manufacturing which lost 2,800 jobs (-1.2%). Other employment losses occurred in construction (-1,700 jobs) and finance (-1,600 jobs).

Total Nonfarm Employment in Virginia*

*Current month’s estimates are preliminary.

Seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment data is produced for ten metropolitan areas. In January, two metropolitan areas experienced over-the-month job gains, seven experienced a decline and one remained unchanged. The two areas that saw job increases were Charlottesville (+500 jobs) and Lynchburg (+300 jobs). The largest job loss over-the-month occurred in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Roanoke, which all lost 900 jobs. The other areas that experienced job losses were Harrisonburg (-800 jobs), Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News (-500 jobs), Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford (-400 jobs) and Winchester (-100 jobs). Staunton-Waynesboro was the only area that had no change in employment over-the-month.

Over-the-year, seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment increased in all ten metropolitan areas. The Northern Virginia metropolitan area experienced the largest absolute job gain, up 36,600 jobs (+2.5%). Richmond ranked second, with a gain of 9,700 jobs (+1.5%). Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News ranked third, with a gain of 9,400 jobs (+1.2%). Other over-the-year job gains occurred in Charlottesville (+4,100 jobs), Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford (+3,900 jobs), Harrisonburg (+2,500 jobs), Lynchburg (+2,200 jobs), Winchester (+2,000 jobs), Roanoke (+1,800 jobs), and Staunton-Waynesboro (+1,300 jobs).

Not Seasonally Adjusted Data

Virginia’s unadjusted unemployment rate increased 0.7 percentage points in January to 3.4 percent. This is 1.6 percentage points lower than the rate from a year ago. Compared to a year ago, the number of unemployed decreased by 63,404, household employment increased by 121,834, and the labor force increased by 58,430. Virginia’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate continues to be below the national unadjusted rate, which increased by 0.7 percentage points in January to 4.4 percent.

Compared to last month, the January unadjusted workweek for Virginia’s 150,600 manufacturing production workers decreased by 0.6 hours to 40.4 hours. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production workers increased by $.02 to $21.47 in January and average weekly earnings decreased by $12.06 to $867.39.

Technical note: Estimates of unemployment and industry employment levels are obtained from two separate monthly surveys. Resident employment and unemployment data are mainly derived from the Virginia portion of the national Current Population Survey (CPS), a household survey conducted each month by the U.S. Census Bureau under contract with BLS, which provides input to the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program (often referred to as the “household” survey). Industry employment data is mainly derived from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, a monthly survey of approximately 18,000 Virginia businesses conducted by BLS, which provides estimates of employment, hours, and earnings data broken down by industry for the nation as a whole, all states and most major metropolitan areas (often referred to as the “establishment” survey). Both industry and household estimates are revised each month based on additional information from updated survey reports compiled by the BLS. For national figures and information on how COVID-19 affected collection of the BLS establishment and household surveys in April 2020, refer to the BLS January 2022 Employment Situation press release for details.

The statistical reference week for the household survey this month was the week of January 9-15, 2022.

Files detailing January unemployment numbers are available below: