Good news on the Virginia employment front. After two years of sequestration-related stagnation, employment in Virginia grew faster than the national rate year-to-year through February 2016 — 2.5% compared to 1.9% — according to figures released by the Virginia Employment Commission. Growth was strongest in the Winchester and Richmond MSAs but it was solid where it counts the most, Northern Virginia, the state’s largest metro. Hampton Roads and Lynchburg continue to lag the state and national economies.
As a resident of the Richmond region, I am particularly heartened by the Richmond numbers. Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads had an excuse for their lagging performance in recent years — their military-dependent economies were hammered by sequestration-related budget cuts. Richmond had no such excuse; federal spending is modest here. As memory serves, this past year is the first in the current business cycle that Richmond has significantly outperformed the national economy.
Not only do the overall employment numbers look good, the strongest growth in the Richmond region took place in the professional and business services sector, a highly compensated occupational category. Growth was up 9.6% of the period, the Richmond Times-Dispatch quotes economist Chris Chmura as saying. State government employment, down 0.4%, was not a factor.
Since getting hammered during the recession, Richmond has been reinventing itself. Dramatic change has taken place not reflected by the overall employment numbers. The economy is less dependent today upon a handful of large employers like Infineon, Circuit City and LandAmerica, all of which disappeared in the recession. A new generation of entrepreneurs is rising to the fore. The region is more vibrant than it has ever been in the 30 years I have lived here.
