Virginia added 8,600 nonfarm jobs in November, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics survey. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 3.5 percent, which is 1.1 percentage points below the national average. Since January 2022, the Commonwealth has seen an increase of 264,000 nonfarm payroll jobs.
Governor Glenn Youngkin commented on the report: “Though delayed, the November jobs report includes an anticipated shift from government-focused employment to the Commonwealth’s robust and growing private sector. A broad-based swath of businesses across the Commonwealth filled more than a quarter of a million jobs since our administration began, not including the current 255,000 open and available jobs and the more than 80,000 permanent and 40,000 construction jobs that are still to come from the record economic development commitments we’ve seen over the past four years.”
Secretary of Commerce and Trade Juan Pablo Segura said: “Virginia’s economic momentum is driven by record levels of investment and recent job-creating announcements that will drive growth for years to come. Businesses have chosen Virginia because of our competitive climate, skilled workforce, and long-term economic vision, fueling the Commonwealth’s job growth well beyond the current administration.”
Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater added: “Virginians continue to benefit from one of the strongest workforce support systems in the nation, which links jobseekers to opportunity, employers to talent, and communities to sustained economic growth, allowing the Commonwealth to outperform the nation in terms of both unemployment and labor force participation.”
The BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics preliminary release reported that Virginia’s labor force decreased by 12,851 from September to a total of 4,527,441 in November. The number of unemployed residents declined by 689 during this period to reach 159,510. The number of employed residents dropped by 12,162 to a total of 4,367,931.
Over-the-month comparisons could not be made because BLS did not collect household survey data in October due to a federal government shutdown. The labor force participation rate fell by 0.3 percentage points since September and stood at 64.3 percent in November.
The CES survey uses employer payroll records and provides counts for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. In contrast, the LAUS survey gathers monthly household interview data on overall labor force status but does not include October data due to missed collection during last year’s federal funding lapse. More information on revised BLS release dates can be found at https://www.bls.gov/bls/2025-lapse-revised-release-dates.htm.
Further details are available on Virginia Works at https://virginiaworks.com/.
