Richmond? Rich-mond?? Yes, Northern Virginia, you have been outdone by the Richmond metropolitan area when it comes to job generation over the past year.
The Northern Virginia area picked up 11,200 net new jobs (0.7%) in the period from December 2022 to December 2023, according to figures reported Feb. 6 by the Virginia Employment Commission.
But Richmond topped the local area both in percentage gain (+2.3%) and, more surprisingly owing to the relative disparity in overall populations, in raw gains (16,300) as well.
For the state as a whole, total employment reported for December 2023 was 4,157,000, up 45,100 (+1.1%) from a year before.
All metro areas within the commonwealth saw higher year-over-year employment except Staunton, which was flat. The biggest gainers on a percentage basis were Charlottesville (+3.8%) and Harrisonburg (+3.7%).
During that 12-month period, Virginia’s private sector saw an employment increase of 0.9 percent to 3,391,500, while the public sector reported a rise of 2.2 percent to 720,400, largely owing the higher employment in state and local governments.
