Virginia – The record-high inflation in decades and skyrocketing prices have slowed down the long-awaited post-pandemic economic recovery. Instead of focusing on growth and new opportunities, most of the companies are now only trying to stay operational while everything is getting more expensive. On top of everything, the FED has been aggressively increasing interest rates since March this year, making the recovery almost impossible.
Many small companies now rely on federal and state support through different programs, waiting for better times. Meanwhile, some of the largest tech companies have already started laying off thousands of employees, meaning that they are preparing for a recession. In case of a recession, things will most certainly get much worse for business owners, but also for workers who are currently becoming increasingly concerned if they are next to be laid off.
According to some industry experts, the constant aggressive rate hikes by the FED in recent months will lead our economy to a recession, and they say it’s likely to happen in the first half of the next year. However, the most recent consumer price index showed a slower trend compared to recent months, which in turn means slower rate hikes. All in all, the unemployment rate is likely to go up in the upcoming period since rates are expected to stay high for an extended period of time.
Companies in Virginia are already heavily impacted by the recent economic trends, and the unemployment rates started to go up, at least in November. According to the Virginia Employment Commission, the unemployment rate in Virginia was 2.8 percent in November, slightly higher compared to the month before. The November unemployment rate in Virginia is still lower compared to the national average unemployment rate, which is 3.7 percent.
The number of Virginians with jobs was down 7,426; the number of those seeking jobs was down another 519. Around 4,300 jobs were lost in professional and business services, 2,200 jobs were lost in manufacturing, and 1,500 jobs were lost in transportation and utilities, according to the Virginia Employment Commission’s recently released data.
For more details about the November report, please visit this link.
