Unemployment and Labor Force
Information on the economic impact and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic in Northern Virginia are found in the Economic Tracking Report. The tracking document includes data and trends on the labor force and unemployment. The report is updated following the monthly release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Local Area Unemployment Statistics.
Economic Tracking Report
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Latest Version released:
April 5, 2024
Updates will occur within 3 business days after the following BLS scheduled release dates:
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April 3, 2024 (February 2024 data)
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May 1, 2024 (March 2024 data)
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May 29, 2024 (April 2024 data)
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July 3, 2024 (May 2024 data)
State of the Region:
Economic Recovery and Transformation from COVID-19 Pandemic
Information on the state of the Northern Virginia region's economic recovery and the transformation from the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is found in the State of the Region July 2022 report. As society eases back to normalcy, people have been returning to the labor force, but – despite many people returning to the labor force and new entrants to the Northern Virginia labor force – there are currently not enough workers to meet the labor force demands across various industries in the region. The region’s labor force is significantly down from February 2020, there are a high number of job postings, and there is a low unemployment rate. The economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recovery has been uneven across industries and demographic groups in Northern Virginia. Understanding why the Northern Virginia region’s labor force has declined, why those people in Northern Virginia who left the labor force during the pandemic are not returning in full, and how to overcome a shortage of labor is critical to fostering an economy and community where residents and businesses can thrive. This report provides detailed information on these factors.
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Minority-Owned Businesses
Minority-owned businesses have experienced heightened risk associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a complex effect on the region’s local economy and on the wellbeing of its minority-owned businesses.
Northern Virginia is home to 128,000 minority-owned businesses, representing the community’s diverse fabric and entrepreneurship. The report on Supporting Northern Virginia's Minority-Owned Businesses was released on June 23, 2021. The report contains detailed information on the minority-owned business community, how they were impacted by the pandemic, and recommendations for supporting them through the pandemic economic recovery and in the future beyond the pandemic.
The Northern Virginia Minority-Owned Working Group present this report. The group is composed of members from the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development, the Prince William County Department of Economic Development, Arlington Economic Development, and the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership.
A report release webinar event was hosted on June 23, 2021 to highlight the report findings. The event also included other presentations, a fire side chat with leaders from across the region, and testimonies from minority business owners. For the video recording and details on the event see the NVRC demographic webinar series website.
Report:
The report provides a Northern Virginia level of analysis on minority-owned businesses.
Data Dashboard:
The dashboard provides a summary of the report findings, interactive data charts, and more detailed information than that found in the report, including jurisdiction level data.
The dashboard will be updated on a quarterly basis by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. Timeline of updates are found on the data dashboard.
Latest version released:
June 8, 2022
Paycheck Protection Program Small Business Loans
Small businesses have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was a small business loan program enacted by Congress for relief from the COVID-19 pandemic's economic fallout. Loans were distributed from April 3, 2020 through August 8, 2020. Nationally it provided $525 billion in forgivable loans for firms to cover payroll and some operational costs. The PPP Loans Dashboard contains a report summarizing how Northern Virginia businesses, localities, and industries fared with the loan program. The analysis utilizes the PPP loan database released on December 2, 2020 by the Small Business Administration.
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