RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) — On Aug. 18, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced an increase of employed Virginians in July.
“As a historic number of Virginians are finding careers in the Commonwealth, I’m encouraged that our commonsense agenda is working,” said Youngkin. “With the largest labor force ever to support growing businesses, Virginia is on the move. And we continue to focus on reducing the cost of doing business, and lowering the cost of living for working Virginians to accelerate these results. Together, we can keep moving the Commonwealth forward.”
While number of employed Virginians may be increasing, WalletHub ranked Virginia No. 6 for states struggling most in hiring. The study compared 50 states and the District of Columbia on the basis of job openings during the latest month and job openings in the past 12 months.
The job opening rate was 6.9% in Virginia in the past month and 7.34% in the last year. For comparison, the state with the lowest hiring struggle is New York with 4.5% last month and 4.73% in the past year.
Despite having a hiring struggle compared to other states, The Commonwealth’s labor force participation rate increased by 0.1% points from June’s rate to 66.7% in July — the highest labor force participation rate since November 2012, according to a press release.
The number of employed residents increased by 17,937 to 4,481,008. Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2.5 percent is 1.0 percentage points below the national rate, which decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.5%.
“The unemployment rate of 2.5% remains below the national rate, and continues its trend downward,” said Secretary of Commerce Caren Merrick. “We are encouraged by the lower unemployment rates that are approaching pre-pandemic levels.”
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