Unemployment rates fall in Virginia metro areas

Unemployment rates fell in all of Virginia’s metro areas in March as the state’s unadjusted jobless rate declined half a percentage point.

The biggest decline occurred in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford metropolitan statistical area. There unemployment fell 1.4 percentage points, from 7 percent in February to 5.6 percent in March.

Statewide, the jobless rate was 5.2 percent in March, down from 5.7 percent in February. Those figures and the metro –area unemployment numbers were not adjusted for seasonable fluctuations in the labor market.

The Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., had the lowest jobless rate in March (4 percent, down from 4.4 percent in February) while the Danville area had the highest (7.3 percent, down from 7.9 percent).

Unemployment rates from other metro areas were:

Charlottesville: 4.5 percent in March, down from 4.9 percent in February.
Harrisonburg: 4.9 percent, down from 5.4 percent.
Bristol: 6.3 percent, down from 7.1 percent.
Lynchburg: 5.8 percent, down from 6.4 percent.
Richmond: 5.6 percent, down from 6.1 percent.
Roanoke: 5.4 percent, down from 6 percent.
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News (Hampton Roads): 5.6 percent, down from 6.2 percent.
Winchester: 4.7 percent, down from 5.3 percent.