Metro jobless rates show little change in October

Published December 7, 2015 by Robert Powell, III

Unemployment rates largely remained unchanged in most of Virginia’s metro areas in October.

The Virginia Employment Commission reported on Monday that eight of the commonwealth’s 11 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) saw no change during the month from September.

Only the New River Valley (Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford), Harrisonburg and Staunton-Waynesboro areas saw an increase in jobless rates.

The New River Valley’s rate rose two tenths of percentage point to 4.3 percent. In both the Harrisonburg and Staunton-Waynesboro areas the rate was 4.1 percent, up one tenth of a point.

All figures in the report were not seasonally adjusted, meaning they had not been adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in the labor market.
All of the MSA rates were well below 5 percent. 

Statewide, Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dipped one-tenth of a percentage point in October to 4.2 percent, the lowest recorded since August 2008.

The statewide rate was 4.1 percent based on numbers that weren’t seasonally adjusted, the same rate seen in September.

A breakdown of the metro areas shows:

Bristol: 4.5 percent in October, unchanged from September.
Charlottesville: 3.6 percent, unchanged.
Hampton Roads: 4.6 percent, unchanged.
Harrisonburg: 4.1 percent, up from 4 percent.
Lynchburg: 4.5 percent, unchanged.
New River Valley: 4.3 percent, up from 4.1 percent.
Northern Virginia: 3.4 percent, unchanged.
Richmond: 4.4 percent, unchanged.
Roanoke: 4.1 percent, unchanged.
Staunton-Waynesboro: 4.1 percent, up from 4 percent.
Winchester: 3.7 percent, unchanged.