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HEARD AROUND VIRGINIA: December 2025

McLean government tech contractor BigBear. announced in early November it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Warren County startup Ask Sage for $250 million. Ask Sage is a fast-growing, secure generative platform tailored for defense and national security. expects the acquisition to close in the late fourth quarter of 2025 or early in the first quarter of 2026. Founded in 2023, Ask Sage supports more than 100,000 users on 16,000 government teams across hundreds of commercial companies. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

AI cloud computing company Corvex said in early November it is merging with California-based Movano Health in an all-stock deal that will create a public company. Movano is best known as the maker of the Evie Ring, a wearable health care device. As part of the deal, Movano is allowed to market its current assets, including the Evie Ring, for sale, as well as its cuffless blood pressure and noninvasive glucose monitoring technologies. The combined company, which will operate under the Corvex name and be based in Arlington, will solely focus on AI infrastructure. (DC Inno)

New York-based artificial intelligence software company Dataminr plans to acquire Arlington County-based cybersecurity firm ThreatConnect in a deal valued at $290 million, the former announced Oct. 21. Founded in 2009, Dataminr uses AI to detect and classify cyber threats. ThreatConnect, founded in 2011, is also focused on helping clients analyze and respond to cybersecurity threats. With 170 employees, ThreatConnect has about 250 major enterprise and government organizations as clients, including one-third of the Fortune 50, according to the company. Dataminr says that its clients include more than 100 U.S. government agencies, over 20 international governments and half of the Fortune 100. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Istari Digital, an Arlington County developer of infrastructure enabling AI-directed workflows across teams, tools and classification levels, announced in late October it had acquired Dgraph from San Francisco-based owner Hypermode. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dgraph is a graph database most commonly used for building knowledge graphs. Founded in 2022, Istari said it plans to continue supporting Dgraph’s open-source community while integrating its graph capabilities into the company’s data fabric. (Potomac Tech Wire)

Lightshift Energy, an Arlington County battery energy storage project developer founded in 2019, landed a new $75 million credit facility from Ohio-based KeyBanc Capital , it said in mid-October. The company will use the funds to support its pipeline of energy storage projects across the East Coast, at a time when the U.S. is experiencing increased demand for energy storage. The flexible credit facility, which includes a term loan, construction-to-term loan and tax equity bridge loan, will back six of Lightshift’s operational projects and advance another 10 that are under or nearing construction. (Potomac Tech Wire)

Sixteen students will work to bring Korra, a protein coffee containing electrolytes from coconut water and sea salt, to market. The product won the demo and pitch competition of the Robins School of Business’ Bench Top Innovations course, according to an early November news release. Four teams pitched canned coffee and tea beverages to a panel of judges in the fifth annual competition, dubbed the Great Bake Off, and all students in the course will work on launching Korra. The canned coffee will be available for sale in retail stores around Richmond and online in early 2026. (News release)

Virginia 500 Spotlight: WAYNE F. WILBANKS

FIRST JOB: I worked in a Baskin-Robbins in downtown Chicago. Lost my appetite for ice cream for at least a decade.

ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADS: Several items of advice:

  1. Choose your business environment or partners very carefully as it will reflect directly on your success.
  2. Take entrepreneurial risks early in your career as you have plenty of time to rebound if you don’t succeed on the first try.
  3. Study seriously as it will have a profound impact on a number of professions and will be critical to your career choices.

FAVORITE FASHION ACCESSORY: Floppy hat and arm protection to avoid skin cancer! Years in the sun are taking their toll, and I am my dermatologists’ favorite client.

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: I am an architecture and design enthusiast with interest in the art nouveau, art deco, Prairie School and midcentury modern periods.

DID YOU KNOW? As a student at Duke University, Wilbanks created an independent study course, for which he worked with a professor and the university’s treasurer to learn about equity portfolios and portfolio theory.

FOR THE RECORD December 2025

Central Virginia 

Pharmaceutical giants , & Co. and Merck & Co. have committed a cumulative $120 million to develop a workforce training center for advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing in Central Virginia. The companies, each of which plans to build major manufacturing facilities in Virginia; the state government, including ; and multiple Virginia colleges and universities signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the Virginia Center for Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the MOU at an event announcing the partnership on Oct. 31. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Billionaire Pittsburgh Steelers minority owner Rob Citrone and his wife, Cindy, are donating more than $50 million to Hampden-Sydney College — the largest single gift in the school’s 250-year history — to launch a full-tuition scholarship program for top prospective students. The Citrone Scholars Program will offer four-year, merit-based scholarships to help Hampden-Sydney attract and educate more “young men of intellect, character and purpose,” according to an early November news release from the college. Rob Citrone, co-founder of hedge fund Discovery Capital Management, graduated from the college in 1987 and serves on Hampden-Sydney’s board of trustees. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Utah-based Civica will begin selling a type of long-acting insulin on Jan. 1, 2026, although it will not come from the nonprofit drug maker’s Petersburg facility. Civica has reached a multiyear agreement with Biocon Ltd. subsidiary Biocon Biologics, a pharmaceutical manufacturer headquartered in India, which will manufacture glargine-yfgn insulin in Malaysia under Biocon Biologics’ existing U.S. market approval. The agreement creates an exclusive distributorship arrangement in which Biocon Biologics will manufacture and supply the medicine to Civica, and Civica will distribute, promote and sell the medicine in the U.S. under a separate Civica label and trade dress. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Following five hours of public comment, the Goochland County Board of Supervisors approved in the early morning of Nov. 7 a technology overlay district plan that will allow the construction of data centers in undeveloped swaths of land in the county’s east end. Goochland currently has no data centers. The district along Route 288 will contain special zoning allowing certain businesses, including a small modular nuclear reactor, a natural gas peaking plant or a utility generating station. It will also require buffers between the buildings and the roads and certain design standards. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Amid forecasts of dismal third quarter earnings, Bill Nash is out as president and CEO at national used-vehicle retailer CarMax, even as its chief rival, Carvana, marked record quarterly results. Nash, who led the Goochland County-based Fortune 500 company for close to a decade, is also stepping down from the company’s board as of Dec. 1. CarMax board member David McCreight, who previously served as CEO of online retail platform Lulu’s Fashion Lounge Holdings, has been named interim president and CEO. Former CarMax CEO Tom Folliard, the current board chair, has been named interim executive chair of the board. He served as CarMax’s CEO from 2006 to 2016. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gifted $50 million to Virginia State University — the largest gift from a single donor in the school’s 143-year history, the Ettrick university announced Oct. 30. The record donation marks Scott’s second gift to VSU in five years. In 2020, she donated $30 million to the public historically Black land-grant university, which has about 5,000 students. VSU will use the money to “expand its efforts to transform lives through education and continue the mission outlined in the university’s strategic plan,” the university said. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Eastern Virginia

opened its massive 3.2 million-square-foot, highly automated fulfillment center in Virginia Beach at the end of September, hundreds of workers to process customer orders alongside robots. According to spokesperson Sam Fisher, more than 700 people have been hired for the new facility on Dam Neck Road, with plans to hire an unspecified number of additional workers. Starting salaries begin at $19 per hour. The five-floor fulfillment center marks the second and final phase of a $350 million expansion in Virginia Beach that included a 219,000-square-foot delivery station, which opened last year at 2201 Harpers Road. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

An energy infrastructure manufacturer focused on data centers has established its first U.S. plant in James City County, a $5.225 million investment, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in early November. Dublin, Ireland-based CEL Critical Power‘s new 400,000-square-foot facility will produce power systems that will serve data centers throughout the United States. CEL already has 50 employees at its new facility across engineering, research and development, finance, management and sales. The number of jobs is expected to rise to 250 within the next year and 500 by 2030. CEL has signed a long-term lease on a recently constructed building for the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

On Nov. 5, laid off 167 employees who had been furloughed earlier this year. A company spokesperson said the decision came “after careful review of our salaried workforce and business needs.” The layoffs mark the latest step in a workforce realignment that began in May, when the company announced plans to furlough 471 salaried shipbuilders for up to five months starting June 2. About a third of the previously furloughed employees had been laid off. Other furloughed shipbuilders returned to NNS during the furlough period, while 99 left the company voluntarily, either through resignations or retirements. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

In a first for Virginia’s gaming industry, workers at Rivers Casino Portsmouth approved a three-year union contract with a 95% yes vote. Represented by Teamsters Local 822, 29 slot attendants at the casino are now the first casino workforce in the state to ratify a collective bargaining agreement. The contract covers pay, locks in employer-paid health care coverage, provides protections from at-will employment and grants additional paid time off. Union leaders, who announced the vote in late October, say the deal will set a precedent for wages and workplace protections as casinos continue to expand across Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Virginia Beach wants another major sports venue near the Oceanfront and recently issued a request for proposals seeking a developer to build and operate a sports venue on a 28.6-acre property directly adjacent to the convention and sports centers along 19th Street between Parks Avenue and Birdneck Road. Potential uses for the “action sports facility” include skateboarding, rock climbing, BMX, indoor water and ice sports or other compatible indoor sports uses. The proposed site is currently used for surface parking. Development proposals are due Dec. 5. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Langley Federal Credit Union in November announced that Gaurav Bhatia will be its new president and CEO. Bhatia will succeed Tom Ryan, who is retiring at the end of 2025 after 13 years leading the Newport News-based credit union, the fourth largest in Virginia, with $4 billion in assets. Bhatia has more than 20 years of executive experience in financial services, technology and business transformation. He was most recently chief marketing, digital and experience officer at Tysons-based PenFed, the second largest credit union based in Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Northern Virginia

-based software company Appian presented arguments in late October before the Supreme Court of Virginia that it should receive a record-breaking $2.04 billion jury award in a trade secrets trial decided in 2022 — a jackpot overturned by three appeals court justices last year. In 2022, Appian won what was estimated to be the largest jury award in Virginia state court history from rival Pegasystems. The state’s high court agreed to hear a petition from Appian to reinstate the judgment, and the company raised four errors it believes the Court of Appeals made. The court also heard Pega’s cross-appeal issues. A ruling is expected in 2026. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

In late October, the Stafford County Planning Commission voted 6-1 to defer requests from Texas retail chain Buc-ee’s for a rezoning and conditional use permit to build a 74,000-square-foot mega travel center in the county off Interstate 95. The matter will be revisited Jan. 14, 2026. The Virginia Department of Transportation made 86 comments on the traffic impact analysis and generalized development plan for the center, causing the planning commission’s chair to ask why the body was considering the application at this time with transportation issues unresolved. Dozens of county residents also spoke, many airing worries about potential noise and pollution in their neighborhoods. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

A future data center campus in western Prince William County has sold for a staggering $700 million, ranking it among the top deals for raw land in U.S. history and proving again there is seemingly no price ceiling for fully entitled data center assemblages. Stanley Martin Homes sold Devlin Tech Park to Amazon Data Services, Amazon.com’s data center arm, according to two sources with knowledge of the deal, which closed Oct. 31. The Bristow site is entitled for up to 3.5 million square feet of data centers and up to three substations. (Washington Business Journal)

Vantage Data Centers plans to invest $2 billion to build a data center campus in Stafford County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Nov. 6. The investment is expected to create 1,100 construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs after the campus reaches full capacity. The new campus, dubbed VA4, will house three data centers totaling about 929,000 square feet on 82 acres. The first building is scheduled to open in late 2027, and the project will bring the company’s statewide capacity to 782 megawatts. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

PEOPLE

Arlington Economic Development Director Ryan Touhill left his job Nov. 7 to move to Arizona, where he took a job as Phoenix’s community and economic director. Kate Ange, AED’s deputy director, was appointed acting director. Touhill joined the department in 2022, coming from the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, where he was senior vice president and chief of staff. In Arlington, he and his team helped secure CoStar’s headquarters relocation from Washington, D.C., announced in 2024. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Toni Townes-Whitley is out as CEO of Fortune 500 government contractor Science Applications International Corp. (), the Reston-based business announced Oct. 23. Jim Reagan, former Leidos executive vice president and chief financial officer, has been installed as interim CEO, effective immediately. He has been part of SAIC’s board since 2023. Townes-Whitley joined SAIC in 2023 as its chief executive and was one of only two current Fortune 500 CEOs who are Black women. The company did not give a specific reason for her departure. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Roanoke/ Lynchburg/ New River Valley

The Blacksburg Partnership, in collaboration with the town of Blacksburg, and Downtown Blacksburg, announced Nov. 6 the completion of a five-year retail and downtown action plan. Developed through a partnership with Alabama-based consultancy Retail Strategies, the plan provides market-driven strategies across four focus areas: policy and administration, design, tourism and promotion, and economic vitality. Several major initiatives are already in motion, including advancing streetscape improvements, such as widened sidewalks, on Draper Road. The plan emphasizes measurable economic outcomes such as tracking the number of new retailers and restaurants. (News release)

Carilion Clinic President and CEO Steve Arner announced Oct. 28 that the health system has raised more than $105.6 million in its fundraising campaign for the Carilion Taubman Cancer Center, exceeding the campaign’s $100 million goal. The seven-story, 260,000-square-foot cancer center, to be located on Carilion’s Riverside campus, is expected to open in 2028. Carilion leaders also announced the launch of a new $50 million initiative to bring proton therapy — a radiation treatment that precisely delivers a beam of protons to destroy cancer cells — to the center. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Roanoke Vice Mayor Terry McGuire opposes placing a casino at the Berglund Center. McGuire said the city could benefit from the potential revenue a casino built at the events center would be expected to generate. However, he’s concerned about the possible negative impacts, including that it could hook customers on gambling. He also said such a project should have at least one Roanoke Valley state legislator backing it, but not one supports the plan presently. The project would require approval from the General Assembly and a local referendum. (Roanoke Rambler)

PEOPLE

Botetourt County announced Oct. 30 that it has hired Kyle Rosner as its new director of economic development. Rosner succeeds Ken McFadyen, who left in May to become Alleghany County’s administrator. A native of Frederick County, Rosner has a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Radford University. Before joining Botetourt, he was a senior adviser at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, where he worked on the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grant program. Before that, he was director of government affairs for All Points Broadband. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

After more than a quarter-century with the credit union that is now Freedom First, Paul Phillips will retire as president and CEO at the end of 2026, according to an Oct. 29 announcement. He will be succeeded by Linda Johnson, currently the Roanoke-headquartered credit union’s chief financial officer. Phillips joined Roanoke GE Federal Credit Union — which at that time served employees of Roanoke Electric Steel and General Electric — in 1998 as vice president of lending. In 2000, he was named president and CEO. Freedom First had 62,702 members at the end of 2024. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Julie Ross, the Paul and Dorothea Torgersen dean of Virginia Tech‘s College of Engineering and special adviser to the president, has been named the university’s next executive vice president and provost, Virginia Tech announced Nov. 4. The executive vice president and provost is the university’s second-highest official and serves as acting president in the president’s absence. Ross will assume the role Jan. 10, 2026. She succeeds Cyril Clarke, who will return to the faculty. Ross joined Virginia Tech in 2017 as the first female dean of the College of Engineering. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Shenandoah Valley

After repeated delays, All Points Broadband says initial fiber construction is underway in Rappahannock County, part of an eight-county regional broadband project launched with state funding in 2022. Crews are building the first network cabinet, with fiber-to-home trenching slated to begin in late October. County supervisors, frustrated by continued setbacks, have discussed possible exit plans if visible progress doesn’t follow soon. The $5.9 million county investment — funded by local foundations, federal relief money and the school board — includes a provision for unspent funds to be returned to the county if All Points fails to meet the state’s 2026 completion deadline. (Rappahannock News)

The Augusta County Board of Zoning Appeals on Nov. 6 unanimously voted to reject a special-use permit for a travel center and truck stop that would have been built on 12 acres on a 32-acre tract on the corner of State Routes 11 and 340. Atlanta-based convenience store operator RaceTrac proposed a project with 20 car pumps, 12 truck and 32 passenger vehicle parking spaces and an 8,100-square-foot convenience store. Residents of Riverheads and the surrounding area opposed it, saying the area already had similar businesses and that the travel center would generate too much traffic in an already congested area. (WHSV 3)

James Madison University announced in October that nearly 66% of its 2024 graduates with known employment outcomes (1,542) are working in Virginia, many in teaching and nursing, two fields facing statewide shortages. Overall, 95.2% of graduates found employment, continued their education or entered military or fellowship programs within six months. JMU’s College of Business had the highest workforce entry rate at 84%, followed by the College of Integrated Science and Engineering at 79%. Most graduates found jobs in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and nearby states, with Northern Virginia employing the largest share. (News release)

In-home care provider Right at Home Winchester celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. Launched in 2015, the company employs 90 people, including 83 certified nursing assistants who assist clients in the northern Shenandoah Valley with daily living tasks, enabling them to remain at home. The private provider offers free services to veterans through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Over the years, the company has faced numerous challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it ultimately persevered, said owner Peter Lawrence, crediting his team for the company’s success. (The Winchester Star)

Starting on Feb. 3, 2026, Shenandoah Valley Airport, located in Weyers Cave, will offer Shenandoah Valley residents daily direct flights to Chicago. The airport announced that its new flight carrier, American Eagle, operated by SkyWest Airlines, will provide daily service to Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport. SkyWest had previously served the airport from 2018 until 2022 before leaving due to a pilot shortage. The airline has since made significant investments in training new pilots, enabling it to resume serving smaller airports. (Daily News-Record)

At a presentation in Stephens City hosted by newly formed environmental advocacy group Winchester-area Interfaith Stewards of the Earth (WISE), Julie Bolthouse of the nonprofit Piedmont Environmental Council warned residents that Virginia’s data center boom, driven by generative AI, poses major energy and infrastructure challenges, and that costs would be passed to ratepayers. She said the world is racing to have the smartest AI possible, resulting in data centers increasing in size to try and achieve that goal. She said there are 60 million square feet of data centers built or under construction in Virginia and another 350 million square feet planned. (The Winchester Star)

Southern Virginia

The Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor, or BRIC, announced its official launch Oct. 31. A business-led nonprofit uniting leaders from Danville, Martinsville, Roanoke, Blacksburg and the counties in between, BRIC will work to transform what it calls a “megaregion” into the state’s fourth economic engine, joining Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. BRIC has a founding board of more than 40 of the region’s business leaders. The organization’s co-chairs are Heywood Fralin, chairman of Roanoke-based Retirement Unlimited, and Ben Davenport, chairman of First Piedmont Corp., a Chatham-based waste management and recycling company. (News release)

The Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce recently announced its 34th Leadership Southside cohort, which includes 55 participants. Of those, 21 are from Hitachi Energy in neighboring South Boston. To make room for the boost in participation, the chamber had to adjust the leadership program. It will now follow a hybrid model: Half of the sessions will be joint experiences for the full cohort, and the rest will be divided between the general group and the Hitachi cohort. (Danville Register & Bee)

On Oct. 28, Henry County announced its Board of Supervisors awarded a $995,000 contract to Timmons Group, a Richmond-based engineering and technology firm, to provide engineering and design services for Lot 3 at Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre. The project is supported by a $750,000 grant from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Business Ready Sites Program. The rest of the funding came from the county’s industrial park budget. Engineering work on the 118-acre lot will include grading, infrastructure planning and environmental permitting. (News release)

Mulberry Creek Assisted Living in Martinsville will close at the end of the year. Parent company Kissito Healthcare announced on its website that the company will be ceasing operations. The Mulberry Creek Assisted Living facility is licensed in Virginia as an assisted living facility with 60 beds. It is designed for residents who need help with daily activities and medication management but do not necessarily require constant skilled nursing care, according to Kissito Healthcare’s website. (Martinsville Bulletin)

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Nov. 7 at the New College Institute (NCI) for its newest occupant, the Minority Business Consortium (MBC). A nonprofit with a mission to assist underrepresented and minority entrepreneurs in Martinsville and Henry County with tailored technical assistance, business development resources, mentorship and training, MBC was founded in 2019. Services provided by MBC include capacity-building workshops, access to capital networks and partnership development across public and private sectors. MBC’s new office at NCI will serve as a hub for business development, resources, programming, training and collaboration. (Martinsville Bulletin)

PEOPLE

Danville City Manager Ken Larking announced two additions to the government leadership
team Oct. 23 amid growth in the region, most notably with the new Caesars Virginia casino resort. Larking selected Michael Adkins and Briana Evans for the newly created positions of assistant city managers. Adkins, who was the city’s chief financial officer, will retain that role while overseeing the finance, information technology and human resources departments and the budget office. Evans, who will start Dec. 1, comes from Redwood City, California, where she was that city’s equity and inclusion officer. (Danville Register & Bee)

Southwest Virginia

Dickenson County has found a new operator for its substance abuse treatment center, which was completed in January but has yet to open. County officials announced Oct. 23 they’d signed an agreement with Momentum Recovery and Wellness, which has an office in Louisville, Kentucky. The announcement came one day after the initial operator and subject of an ongoing FBI investigation, Addiction Recovery Care of Kentucky, announced it is being acquired by Florida-based Ethema Health. The change in operators had been in the works for several months because it was taking ARC too long to get the necessary state license to get the facility up and running, said Dana Cronkhite, executive director of the county’s industrial development authority. (Cardinal News)

Two Southwest Virginia affordable housing projects will receive a combined $1.2 million in grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, which announced grant recipients on Nov. 3. People Incorporated Housing Group is sponsoring both projects: Abingdon Green II, which will receive $584,807, and Norton Green II, which will receive $633,065. Abingdon Green II is a rehabilitation of 32 multifamily rental units and is expected to cost $7.18 million to develop. Norton Green II is rehabilitating 40 multifamily units in an $8.56 million project. The grants will be administered through . (Bristol Herald Courier)

VFP, a manufacturer of enclosures used to protect critical infrastructure like data centers, will invest $35 million to expand operations at its Scott County facility, a move expected to create 200 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Oct. 21. Founded in 1965 in Roanoke County, VFP began manufacturing products in Duffield in 1997. This is the company’s third expansion in five years, and it will help VFP meet demand from the data center and utility power industries. It’s expected to double production capacity. In 2024, the Duffield facility employed 350 workers. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

A modular housing production facility that will also provide construction workforce training will soon come to Russell County, where it is anticipated to create 89 jobs within five years. The project is supported in part by a $3 million loan, announced Oct. 29, from the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority to the Russell County Industrial Development Authority. The IDA will use the funding to purchase and renovate the former 92,000-square-foot Buster Brown Building in the Russell County Industrial Park. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Wellmore Energy Co. is again planning to lay off workers in Buchanan County. The metallurgical coal mining company plans to lay off 118 workers across several locations, according to notices sent in early October to the state government in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. The company, a subsidiary of United Coal Co., expected the more recent round of layoffs to begin Dec. 6 and end by Dec. 19. Wellmore previously notified the state of the September layoffs of 72 workers in Buchanan. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

On Election Day, Wise County voters rejected a referendum that would have marked a first step toward creating a local electric authority to work with large businesses like data centers or advanced manufacturers that require lots of power. Officials had said the proposed authority would have focused on big commercial and industrial that use so much electricity that they would require new power plants, possibly next door to them. Residents who opposed the proposal had multiple objections. They said county officials failed to provide adequate information to voters and expressed concerns that an electric authority could be used to bypass public input on future project proposals. (Cardinal News)

Top Five: December 2025

1 | Booz Allen Hamilton announces new round of layoffs: After a weak quarter, the -based Fortune 500 government contractor launched another round of job cuts, citing earlier federal contract reductions and a slowdown in federal funding. (Oct. 27)

2 | Toni Townes-Whitley out as SAIC’s CEO: After two years Jim Reagan, former Leidos executive vice president and chief financial officer, was installed as interim CEO of the Fortune 500 government contractor. (Oct. 24)

3 | Spanberger names transition team leaders: Virginia , who will be Virginia’s first female governor, named seven transition team co-chairs. (Nov. 5)

4 | Two Virginia companies donate to White House ballroom project: Henrico County’s and McLean’s Hamilton were on a list of donors underwriting President Donald Trump’s roughly $300 million White House ballroom construction project. (Oct. 29)

5 | Merck to build $3 billion pharma facility in Elkton: ‘s 400,000-square-foot Center of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Small Molecule Manufacturing is expected to create 500 jobs. (Oct. 20)

Out and About – December 2025

1. The Nov. 7 opening day of the Store‘s new Short Pump Town Center location attracted throngs of kids young and old. (Photo courtesy the Lego Group)

2. executives and their families attended American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking awards gala Oct. 23 in New York, where bank President and Chief Operating Officer Maria Tedesco was honored as one of 2025’s Women to Watch. L to R: Tom McDowell; Bank Operations Executive Ronda McDowell; Executive Administrator Lucy Whitmer; Wendy Asbury; CEO John Asbury; Tedesco; Leah Tedesco; Chief Human Resources Officer Clare Miller; Head of Corporate Communications Beth Shivak; and General Counsel Rachael Lape. (Photo courtesy Atlantic Union Bank)

3. More than 200 people showed up for the Nov. 6 opening of the Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia‘s recruitment center in Petersburg. L to R: Petersburg council member W. Howard Myers; casino Marketing Vice President Cheryl Brown; Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham; casino General Manager Penny Parayo; council member Darrin Hill; casino human resources VP Trish Truck; council member Arnold Westbrook; and Metropolitan Business League Board Chair Nickkol Lewis. (Photo courtesy Live! Casino Virginia)

4. John Mengucci, president and CEO of Reston-based Fortune 500 government contractor , was honored as an executive of the year at the Nov. 5 Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards, held at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner. (Photo courtesy Northern Virginia Chamber and Professional Services Council)

5. , and their spouses, Adam Spanberger and first lady of Virginia Suzanne Youngkin, met Nov. 6 to discuss the gubernatorial transition. (Photo courtesy Spanberger transition team)

On Nov. 6 at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Virginia Business held the Virginia Icon Honors awards luncheon, recognizing the lifetime achievements of Virginia leaders in business and . Photos by Matthew R.O. Brown for Virginia Business.

6. Victor Branch, Bank of America‘s Richmond market president, receives his Virginia Icon Honors award from Virginia Business Associate Publisher and Editor Richard Foster.

7. L to R: McCleskey CEO Cheryl McLeskey, former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Virginia Icon Honors awardee Barbara M. Wolcott, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices RW Towne Realty.

8. L to R: 2025 Icon Honors honorees Aubrey Layne of Sentara Health; former PBMares CEO Alan Witt; Crutchfield CEO Bill Crutchfield; UVA Community Health CEO Erik Shannon; Capital Square co-CEO Louis Rogers; Divaris Group Chairman and CEO Gerald Divaris; Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices RW Towne Realty CEO Barbara Wolcott; Williams Mullen Chairman Emeritus Thomas Frantz; Bank of America Richmond Market President Victor Branch; Regent University Chancellor Gordon Robertson; Genworth CEO Tom McInerney; Joe Montgomery of The Optimal Service Group of Wells Fargo Advisors; University of Mary Washington President Troy Paino; and Knox Singleton of Opportunity Scholars.

9. Anna Hickey, dean of Christopher Newport University‘s Luter School of Business

10. WTVR CBS 6 News Richmond evening news anchor GeNienne Samuels emceed the Virginia luncheon.

100 People to Meet in 2026: Innovators

These scientists, founders and executives are leading the way in tomorrow’s industries, from small modular reactors to indoor farming.

Beck
Beck

JEFF BECK

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, ANSWERSNOW, RICHMOND

After working as a licensed therapist, Jeff Beck co-founded AnswersNow in 2016 to provide telehealth therapy for children with autism and their families. A graduate of Randolph-Macon College, Beck earned his master of social work degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.
AnswersNow’s platform launched in 2017, and the company has raised more than $30 million, and this year, Beck was named one of Ernst & Young’s Mid-Atlantic of the Year. The business operates in eight states and estimates it will assist 1,000 families this year.

Telehealth took off during the pandemic, but Beck noted in a 2024 interview with Authority Magazine that for children with autism, “the ability to receive in-person care is severely impacted by shortages of available therapists,” and remote appointments can be a faster option.

In 2026, Beck expects AnswersNow to expand into four to six more states and to expand its network of approximately 100 clinicians by 50% to 100% to support its goal of serving 3,000 families next year.

Haskins
Haskins

CONAWAY HASKINS

VICE PRESIDENT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS, , RICHMOND

Conaway Haskins joined VIPC in 2021 to head its entrepreneurial ecosystems division, which supports across the state through project funding, technical assistance and network building, with the goal of growing jobs, attracting science- and tech-based startups and supporting their growth.

Haskins has over 20 years of experience in economic development and government affairs. Before joining VIPC, he was associate director of the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation, and he serves on Virginia Tech’s Center for Economic and Community Engagement’s advisory board.

In 2026, Haskins expects to focus on merging VIPC’s ecosystems and strategic initiatives teams. The latter works to develop emerging technology industries where Virginia has unique advantages and assets.

“Bringing these two groups together will amplify VIPC’s efforts to support regional and industrial ecosystems in all corners of the commonwealth and continue positioning Virginia as a leading state for innovation-led economic development,” he says.

Munson
Munson

JENNY MUNSON

PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR, CANCER RESEARCH CENTER, VIRGINIA TECH, ROANOKE

Nearly two-thirds of the body is water, and much of it is fluid that flows between cells to deliver nutrients and remove waste. For Jenny Munson, this fluid-flow system points to treatments for lethal brain tumors and Alzheimer’s disease.

At Virginia Tech, Munson’s lab builds tools to measure, model and manipulate these flows, applying them to brain cancers to find invading tumor cells and address conditions affecting memory.

Munson also co-founded Cairina, a company that offers clinicians imaging tools and an algorithm to predict where a glioblastoma (a type of cancer that starts as a growth of cells in the brain or spinal cord) is likely to grow. The newest venture at her lab is Lympha Bio, which focuses on immunological testing and how chemotherapy affects the lymphatic system.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and neuroscience from Tulane University and her Ph.D. in bioengineering from Georgia Tech.

Nassar
Nassar

AHMAD NASSAR

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYERS ASSOCIATION; CEO, WINNERS ALLIANCE, TYSONS

Ahmad Nassar has been involved for years with professional athletes, helping them secure licensing and marketing deals as founding CEO of OneTeam Partners and chairman of REP Worldwide. His newest venture is Winners Alliance, the Fairfax County-based company that represents worldwide athletes’ name, image and likeness (NIL) rights, from cricketers to soccer stars. In June, he was named one of Ernst & Young’s Mid-Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year winners.

Nassar calls Winners Alliance “kind of a baby business, or a toddler business. We’re still growing, and I don’t mean that solely in a revenue or headcount way.”

Having earned a law degree from the University of Chicago, Nassar was president of NFL Players Inc., the NFL Players Association’s marketing and licensing business, and since 2022, Nassar has been executive director of the PTPA. In March, the organization filed lawsuits against tennis’s governing bodies in the United States, the U.K. and the European Union, advocating for higher compensation and improved anti-doping and scheduling processes.

Polefrone
Polefrone

JOY POLEFRONE

APM TECH HUB REGIONAL INNOVATION OFFICER, COMMONWEALTH CENTER FOR ADVANCED MANUFACTURING, PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY

A former health innovation director at Virginia Commonwealth University’s da Vinci Center and an ultrasound and radiology strategist for Philips, Joy Polefrone earned her Ph.D. in chemistry at the , focusing on cancer immunology and bioanalytical chemistry and proteomics.

Founded in 2010, CCAM is a public-private research and development consortium that hosts a training lab for scientists and engineers to develop and test technology for manufacturing, with a focus on producing active ingredients for medicines in Central Virginia. In 2023, the alliance was designated a tech hub by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Polefrone serves as the organization’s point of contact for the EDA, and she drives the consortium members’ collaboration and strategy.

In addition to her career in science, Polefrone has been a yoga teacher and student for more than two decades.

Rolander
Rolander

JEFF ROLANDER

VICE PRESIDENT OF CLAIMS AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, FAYE, RICHMOND

After almost 20 years working for Allianz Group subsidiaries, Jeff Rolander left the French corporation in late 2021 to join Richmond travel insurance startup Faye, drawn by its focus on customer loyalty and retention. Following his most recent promotion, Rolander oversees the claims and frontline teams, comprising almost all of Faye’s roughly 50-person local workforce.

Founded in 2019 and owned by Zenner, Faye achieved $100 million in sales revenue this year, and Time magazine included the company on its Best Inventions of 2025 list. Its app allows customers to file claims quickly and to keep them in a virtual wallet, as well as offering a “cancel for any reason” coverage option.

Faye’s corporate office is in Delaware, but it has major hubs in Richmond and Tel Aviv. The company has leased an office in Henrico County, and it anticipates more growth in 2026. With about 150 employees worldwide, the company hopes to grow its local headcount by 35% within the next year.

Rosener
Rosener

GWENN ROSENER

CEO, FLEXPROFESSIONALS, FAIRFAX

In 2010, Gwenn Rosener co-founded her staffing firm, FlexProfessionals, which even pre-pandemic has focused on finding remote and hybrid jobs for women with family demands. The company has worked with about 1,000 companies over the past decade and a half, and many of its placements are in accounting, sales, marketing and human resources at organizations throughout Northern Virginia.

Before starting FlexProfessionals, Rosener was a systems engineer at General Electric and a senior manager at Capgemini, the French multinational IT company that purchased Ernst & Young Consulting in 2000.

Amid federal spending cuts and job in the private and public sectors, Rosener and her colleagues have been very busy fielding calls this year. Speaking this summer, Rosener said that many of the former federal workers she’s spoken with never expected to go through another job search after landing what used to be dependably secure employment.

Shen
Shen

JEREMY SHEN

CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, YOUNT, HYDE & BARBOUR, WINCHESTER

In March, YHB tapped Jeremy Shen to be the Winchester-based accounting and consulting firm’s first chief strategy officer, a job that involves merging long-term strategy with practical execution.

“Public accounting is changing faster than ever,” Shen says, “and my focus is on making sure YHB remains sustainable and ahead of that curve.”
Looking ahead to 2026, Shen plans for YHB to focus on “strengthening national partnerships, exploring selective [mergers and acquisitions] and continuing to evolve how a modern, independent firm competes and grows.”

Shen joined YHB as its marketing director in 2015. Over the last decade, he’s also helped with shaping business development and client engagement strategies at the firm.

A graduate of Longwood University’s MBA program, Shen worked for a firearms business, a global law firm and a metal manufacturer before moving to YHB.

Tiwari
Tiwari

AKSHITA TIWARI

CO-FOUNDER, qMe, PROCO, CHARLOTTESVILLE

Akshita Tiwari, 19, attended a STEM-focused high school in Loudoun County, and that’s where she got interested in quantum computing, which she’s now studying at the University of Virginia as a computer science major.

An entrepreneur, Tiwari also passes along her quantum knowledge to elementary and middle school students through qMe, a tech education startup she co-founded as a high school student.

She’s also launched another business to help fellow students find mentors in the work world. With two friends at the University of Maryland, Tiwari started Proco, an app that pairs business mentors with mentees. The app grew out of an assignment in one of her U.Va. classes, and it received $1,000 in seed funding from U.Va.’s VentureForward program and support from the Darden School of Business’ i.Lab Incubator. The team plans to grow the business post-graduation, and Tiwari has added a business minor to her workload.

In her free time, Tiwari is trained in Indian classical dance, and she loves trying new restaurants around Charlottesville.

Whitt
Whitt

JEFF WHITT

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, , LYNCHBURG

In February, former Framatome U.S. Government Solutions President Jeff Whitt became executive director of the Virginia Innovative Nuclear Hub. Created in 2024 with a seed grant of $350,000 from the Virginia Department of Energy, the organization connects researchers, utilities and nuclear tech companies, including Lynchburg’s Framatome, in promoting nuclear energy production in Virginia.

This year, the VIN Hub received $1.2 million in grants to create a research facility around a microscale reactor, all still in the planning stages.
Small modular nuclear reactors have a major cheerleader in , who has promoted SMRs as a clean energy source amid higher power demand from data centers and .

Zappernick
Zappernick

NATALIA ZAPPERNICK

DIRECTOR OF HORTICULTURE, , RICHMOND

In her sophomore year at Ohio State University, Natalia Zappernick decided that she wanted to work in biosystems and agricultural engineering. “I really haven’t looked back since then,” she says.

Zappernick moved from Baltimore’s Bowery Farming to Richmond this summer to start her new job as horticulture director for Babylon Micro-Farms, a growing indoor farming operation.

On a recent morning, Zappernick and two colleagues were studying 11 micro-farms at the Inc. 5000 company’s Richmond headquarters. “We’ll spend our day seeing what we need to do in terms of harvesting and farming tasks, collecting data, synthesizing it and sort of interpreting if our research trials worked or didn’t work,” she explains.

In 2026, Zappernick plans to expand Babylon’s produce menu. Currently, the company cultivates more than 45 leafy greens, lettuces, microgreens, herbs and flowers for its customers, including Aramark, Sodexo and other food service corporations.

 

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US stocks rise as Wall Street looks to add to its winning streak

Summary:

  • extend three-day rally on expectations of a December Fed rate cut
  • , Dow and all rose in early trading
  • and Nvidia climb on strong server demand

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising as looks to build on its recent winning streak.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% in early trading Wednesday. The Industrial Average gained 227 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq added 0.7% as of 9:50 a.m. EST.

Stocks have risen for three straight days as comments from Federal Reserve officials have given traders more confidence the central bank will again cut interest rates at its meeting in December. Traders are betting on a nearly 83% probability that the Fed will cut next month, according to data from CME Group.

Dell Technologies rose 2.3% after saying it has received record orders for its servers. Dell and other technology companies had fallen earlier in the month as investors worried the prices for their stocks had gotten too frothy amid the frenzy over AI. Nvidia, the market’s most valuable company, rose 2.5%.

Urban Outfitters joined a host of other retailers this week in reporting earnings that exceeded Wall Street forecasts, and its shares jumped 11.7%.

On the downside, shares of dropped nearly 4% after the farm equipment company issued a downbeat forecast, citing pressure from .

U.S. markets will have a shortened trading week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, closing on Thursday and opening for shorter hours on Friday.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.03% and the yield on the 2-year Treasury rose to 3.49%.

In international markets, shares in Europe and Asia advanced. Germany’s DAX gained 0.7% while the CAC 40 in Paris also rose 0.6%. In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.9% in a broad rally that encompassed major exporters and technology shares.

U.Va. continues presidential search, despite Spanberger’s call for pause

SUMMARY:

  • presidential search committee held interviews with candidates despite Gov.-elect Spanberger’s call for them to pause process
  • Faculty, staff groups have urged rector, vice rector to resign from board
  • Former president Jim Ryan’s Nov. 14 letter has led to intensified criticism of U.Va.’s board

The University of Virginia’s presidential search committee has continued its work in a successor for former President Jim Ryan, despite calls from and groups of faculty and staff to pause the process.

In a Nov. 21 statement, the U.Va. ‘ special committee — a body that includes U.Va. board members and others with ties to the state’s flagship university — said that it had “just completed the first round of interviews” with candidates for the presidency last week. “However, we are not yet at the point of selecting finalists. To responsibly narrow this exceptional pool, we must conduct additional due diligence, hold further interviews and continue our internal deliberations.”

The committee’s unsigned statement does not provide a timeline for further interviews or clarify whether they are now taking the pause Spanberger requested in a Nov. 12 letter to U.Va. Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson, or moving full speed ahead.

U.Va.’s Faculty Senate also called for Sheridan and Wilkinson to immediately resign from the board in a Nov. 14 resolution released the same day that Ryan wrote a bombshell 12-page letter to the Faculty Senate that was then made public. In the days before his late June resignation, Ryan wrote that Sheridan, Wilkinson and board member Paul Manning exerted pressure on Ryan to resign the presidency by asserting that the Trump administration’s Department of Justice required him to step down for the university to reach a resolution of alleged civil rights violations.

However, Ryan wrote, the three board members may have misrepresented the DOJ’s orders, adding that the true pressure for him to resign might have originated with , board members and conservative attorneys hired by the board, or a combination of those individuals. Ryan also alleged that Manning, along with Sheridan and Wilkinson, who were not yet serving as rector and vice rector, failed to keep the rest of the board of visitors informed of their negotiations with Justice Department attorneys and prevented Ryan from directly speaking with them.

Spanberger, who previously asked Sheridan and Wilkinson to hold off hiring or deciding presidential finalists until she could fill five vacant board seats as governor, has ramped up her own criticism of Youngkin and the board following Ryan’s letter.

The governor-elect accused Youngkin of “overstepping” by naming politically motivated board members and seeking to influence universities via those appointments in an interview last week with The Washington Post, and she said naming appointees to the five U.Va. board vacancies will be a day one priority when she takes office in January 2026.

Meanwhile, the United Campus Workers of Virginia, a local chapter of the Communications Workers of America, and hundreds of current and retired faculty members have backed the U.Va. Faculty Senate resolution calling for a pause in the hiring process as well as Sheridan and Wilkinson’s resignations.

However, as of Monday, the rector and vice rector had not yet responded to the Nov. 14 resolution, U.Va. Faculty Senate Chair Jeri Seidman wrote in an email to fellow faculty senators, and on Tuesday, a U.Va. spokesperson said that the university did not have a comment beyond Sheridan’s previous letter to the Faculty Senate — which Ryan called “inaccurate” in his letter — and the search committee’s Nov. 21 report on its recent candidate interviews.

Meanwhile, U.Va.’s presidential search might be completed before Spanberger takes office.

Seidman, an associate professor of commerce, wrote that she’s received mixed responses from faculty members. Some say they’re “reassured” by the committee’s statement that it has not yet selected finalists, but others are “unsure if a pause has even occurred. … Whichever way you interpret it, I’m sure we will all continue to watch the search with intense interest.”

Layoffs are piling up, raising worker anxiety. Here are some companies that have cut jobs recently

Summary:

  • Companies from to Amazon and announce mass layoffs
  • slows amid “no-hire, no-fire” and shutdown fallout
  • rises to 4.4% as revised data shows August job losses
  • Firms cite , restructuring and investments for reductions

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s a tough time to be looking for a job.

Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a “no-hire, no fire” standstill. That’s caused many to limit new work to only a few specific roles, if not pause openings entirely. At the same time, sizable layoffs have continued to pile up — raising worker anxieties across sectors.

Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs spanning from U.S. President Donald Trump’s barrage of new tariffs and shifts in consumer spending. Others cite more broadly — or are redirecting money to artificial intelligence.

Federal employees have encountered additional doses of uncertainty, impacting worker sentiment around the job market overall. Shortly after Trump returned to office at the start of the year, federal jobs were cut by the thousands. And the record 43-day government shutdown also left many without paychecks.

The impasse put key economic data on hold, too. In a delayed report released last week, the Department said U.S. employers added a surprising 119,000 jobs in September. But unemployment rose to 4.4% — and other troubling details emerged, including revisions showing the economy actually lost 4,000 jobs in August. The shutdown also resulted in holes for more recent hiring numbers. The government says it won’t release a full jobs report for October.

Here are some of the largest job cuts announced recently:

HP

In November, HP said this week it expected to lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 employees. The cuts are part of a wider initiative from the computer maker to streamline operations, which includes adopting AI to increase productivity. The company aims to complete these actions by the end of the 2028 fiscal year.

Also in November, Verizon began laying off more than 13,000 employees. In a staff memo announcing the cuts, CEO Dan Schulman said that the telecommunications giant needed to simplify operations and “reorient” the entire company.

General Motors

General Motors will lay off about 1,700 workers across manufacturing sites in Michigan and Ohio in late October, as the auto giant adjusts to slowing demand for electric vehicles. Hundreds of additional employees are reportedly slated for “temporary layoffs” at the start of next year.

Paramount

In long-awaited cuts just months after completing its $8 billion merger with Skydance, Paramount plans to lay off about 2,000 employees — about 10% of its workforce. Paramount initiated roughly 1,000 of those layoffs in late October, according to a source familiar with the matter.

In November, Paramount also announced plans to eliminate 1,600 positions as part of divestitures of Televisión Federal in Argentina and Chilevision in Chile. And the company said another 600 employees had chosen voluntary severance packages as part of a coming push to return to the office full-time.

Amazon

Amazon said in October that it will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, close to 4% of its workforce, as the online retail giant ramps up spending on AI while trimming costs elsewhere. A letter to employees said most workers would be given 90 days to look for a new position internally.

UPS

United Parcel Service has disclosed about 48,000 job cuts this year as part of turnaround efforts, which arrive amid wider shifts in the company’s shipping outputs. UPS also closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during the first nine months of this year.

Target

Target in October said it would eliminate about 1,800 corporate positions, or about 8% of its corporate workforce globally. The retailer said the cuts were part of wider streamlining efforts.

Nestlé

In mid-October, Nestlé said it would be cutting 16,000 jobs globally — as part of wider cost cutting aimed at reviving its financial performance amid headwinds like rising commodity costs and U.S. imposed tariffs. The Swiss food giant said the layoffs would take place over the next two years.

Lufthansa Group

In September, Lufthansa Group said it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2030 — pointing to the adoption of artificial intelligence, digitalization and consolidating work among member airlines.

Novo Nordisk

Also in September, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said it would cut 9,000 jobs, about 11% of its workforce. The company — which makes drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — said the layoffs were part of wider restructuring, as it works to sell more obesity and diabetes medications amid rising competition.

ConocoPhillips

Oil giant ConocoPhillips announced plans in September to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, as part of broader efforts from the company to cut costs. Between 2,600 and 3,250 workers were expected to be impacted, with most layoffs set to take place before the end of 2025.

Intel

Intel has moved to shed thousands of jobs — with the struggling chipmaker working to revive its business. In July, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Intel expected to end the year with 75,000 “core” workers, excluding subsidiaries, through layoffs and attrition. That’s down from 99,500 core employees reported the end of last year. The company previously announced a 15% workforce reduction.

Microsoft

In May, Microsoft began laying off about 6,000 workers across its workforce. And just months later, the tech giant said it would be cutting 9,000 positions — marking its biggest round of layoffs seen in more than two years. The company has cited “organizational changes,” but the labor reductions also arrive as the company spends heavily on AI.

Procter & Gamble

In June, Procter & Gamble said it would cut up to 7,000 jobs over the next two years, 6% of the company’s global workforce. The maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers said the cuts were part of a wider restructuring — also arriving amid tariff pressures.

Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week as job cuts stay low

Summary:

  • fall to 216,000, below forecasts
  • Continuing claims rise to 1.96 million as job hunts lengthen
  • Labor market remains “low-hire, low-fire” despite big-name
  • Cooling and confidence fuel Fed rate-cut expectations

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for benefits declined last week in a sign that overall layoffs remain low, even as several high-profile companies have announced job cuts.

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits in the week ending Nov. 22 dropped 6,000 from the previous week to 216,000, the  reported Wednesday. The figure is below the 230,000 forecast by economists, according to a survey by data provider FactSet.

Applications for unemployment aid are seen as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the . The job cuts announced recently by large companies such as UPS and typically take weeks or months to fully implement and may not yet be reflected in the claims data.

The four-week average of claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, dropped 1,000 to 223,750.

For now, the U.S. job market appears stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job.

The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the week ending Nov. 15 rose 7,000 to 1.96 million, the government said. The increase is a sign that the unemployed are taking longer to find new work.

Last week, the government said that hiring picked up a bit in September, when employers added 119,000 new jobs. Yet the report also showed employers had shed jobs in August. And the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, its highest level in four years, as more Americans came off the sidelines to look for work but did not all immediately find jobs.

On Tuesday, the government reported that retail sales slowed in September after three months of healthy increases. Consumer confidence plunged to its second-lowest level in five years, while wholesale eased a bit.

The data suggests that both the and inflation are slowing, which boosted financial ‘ expectations that the Federal Reserve will reduce its key interest rate at its next meeting Dec. 9-10.