More than 300 job cuts in Virginia, state reports

Leidos QTC Health Services, a California-based subsidiary of the Reston-based Fortune 500 federal contractor Leidos, said that it is cutting at least 77 Virginia-based jobs, despite having received a contract extension from the Veterans Affairs Department in early January for $5.1 billion.

Leidos’ 77 layoffs are part of 365 total layoffs that were reported during the month of June to the state’s Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, aka Virginia Works. The agency posted the layoffs Tuesday on its WARN site.

The job cuts include 103 layoffs at Nakupuna Cos. in Arlington, 104 layoffs at CarParts.com’s Chesapeake location, which is closing Aug. 8; and 81 layoffs at Kroger‘s Charlottesville store, which is closing in August as well.

The decision to cut the jobs that are largely remote but assigned to the Reston headquarters is “regarding an internal initiative,” Leidos said in a statement this week. About a dozen of the impacted workers are in Virginia, a spokesperson clarified.

“We are helping support the impacted employees and will work with them to identify other potential opportunities within Leidos,” the company stated. “As this process can take several weeks, the final number of people who will no longer work for the company is not yet known.”

On Jan. 6, Leidos announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs had awarded Leidos QTC an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to process medical disability exams for retired military personnel seeking disability claims, in the final days of the Biden administration. It is not clear whether the delivery orders under the contract have changed under the Trump administration.

According to the GovTribe website, Leidos QTC won $5.1 billion on the $13.2 billion-ceiling contract, which started in 2018.

Previously, Leidos said it would be laying off 29 people in Alexandria and Manassas in May, and in a May court filing, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security terminated a $2.4 billion IT and cybersecurity contract awarded last year to Leidos.

CarParts.com, Nakupuna and Kroger

CarParts.com did not respond to a request for comment about the Chesapeake facility closing. However, the company reported in May that its net sales for the first quarter decreased 11% from the same quarter the previous year to $147.4 million.

“This reiterates how critical it is for us to continue to upgrade our customer base with higher income and less price sensitive customers as well as diversify our acquisition mix,” David Meniane, Carparts.com’s CEO, said in a statement then.

Nakupuna also did not respond to a request for more information about the job cuts. However, in the notice to the state, Ret Grady, chief human resources officer for Nakupuna, wrote that it’s closing one of its operating units at the Arlington location “due to the unexpected decision by the U.S. Department of the Navy not to award the task order required for continuity of services of one of Nakupuna’s government contracts.”

Grady noted that the company received less than two weeks’ notice of the Navy’s decision.

Federal contractors have laid off hundreds of employees in recent months as the Trump administration has slashed federal agencies’ budgets and attempted to claw back funding from some already awarded contracts.

Nakupuna has more than 1,300 employees, according to information the company posted on LinkedIn. Among the roles being cut are business analyst, scrum master and tester positions, the company’s letter to the state says.

Also, Kroger filed notice June 20 that 81 employees at a Charlottesville store will lose their jobs when the store closes Aug. 22. A second store in Abingdon is set to close as well, although the state has not posted a notice about how many layoffs that will trigger.

State unemployment rate rises

Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.4% in May, the state announced this week. The national joblessness rate was 4.2%. Gov. Glenn Youngkin emphasized the bright side, though, noting that nonfarm payrolls increased by 1,200 jobs in May.

“The continued growth in nonfarm payrolls underscores the strength of Virginia’s job market,” Youngkin said in a statement.  “The addition of 1,200 jobs in May, along with the upward revision of 2,200 jobs in April, reflects Virginia’s financial strength, driven by companies growing and hiring more Virginians.”

However, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat who represents parts of Northern Virginia, noted in a statement this week that Virginia has seen five consecutive months of the state’s unemployment rate rising, which has not happened since the Great Recession of 2008-09.

“Gov. Youngkin inherited a strong economy that was rebounding from the pandemic downturn with strong growth and job gains, and a 2.7% unemployment rate that was the envy of much of the nation,” Beyer said Tuesday. “To be clear, our commonwealth is still a great place to do business, with job gains still coming and unemployment below the national average. But today’s data shows we are now clearly moving in the wrong direction.”