As society continues to adapt to the pandemic era, Northern Virginia continues to see an increase in jobs compared to more troubled times of a year before.
The region’s non-farm employment count of 1,520,700 in April was up 44,000 (or 3%) from a year before, according to figures reported June 1 by the Virginia Employment Commission.
That represents 35 percent of the 124,500 total increase in statewide jobs during the same period. (Virginia’s overall non-farm employment grew 3.2% to 4,037,800 during the year.)
All 10 metro areas of the commonwealth posted year-over-year increases in the April data, with the boosts ranging from 5.2 percent in Blacksburg/Christiansburg down to 1.5 percent in Roanoke. In raw numbers, both Richmond (up 2.1%) and Hampton (up 1.8%) grew by 14,000 jobs, second only to Northern Virginia.
The private sector saw a year-over-year rebound of 3.6 percent to 3,232,400, while the public sector, which in many instances wasn’t as badly impacted by the pandemic, saw a rebound of 1.2 percent to 714,400.
Among various employment categories, the hard-hit-by-COVID leisure/hospitality cohort saw an 18.4-percent increase in jobs from a year before.