Virginia’s unemployment rate creeps downward

Published March 17, 2015 by Jessica Sabbath

Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased 0.1 percentage point to 4.7 percent in January.

That rate is the lowest since October 2008 and was 0.6 percentage point below January 2014. The national average unemployment rate is 5.7 percent.

In January, the labor force expanded by 10,207 after decreasing during the previous nine months as household employment increased by 13,446 and the number of people seeking work dropped by 3,239 people.

Total nonfarm employment decreased by 10,900 jobs in January to 3.79 million, following job increases that totaled 20,500 the previous four months.  Seasonally adjusted employment decreased in six industries during January: trade and transportation, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, government, information and mining.

Job gains occurred in private education and health services, construction, miscellaneous services and manufacturing. Employment remained steady in the financial industry.