Area unemployment declines to 2-year low

Central Virginia’s unemployment dropped in December to its lowest rate in two years, led by Greene County, which had its lowest unemployment rate since 2008, according to statistics released by the Virginia Employment Commission.

The Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes most of Central Virginia, turned in a 5.2 percent unemployment rate in December, unmatched since January 2009. Greene County’s 5.1 percent is the lowest since December 2008’s 4.2 percent.

Only Louisa County showed a slight uptick in unemployment, rising to from 7.7 percent in November to 7.8 in December. That was well below the 8.7 percent rate the county had in December 2009, however.

Greene County figures dropped from 5.3 percent unemployed in November 2010 to 5.1 percent in December, which was also lower than December 2009’s rate of 5.9 percent.

“We’re doing well and people are staying busy,” said Tony Williams, economic development director for Greene County. “I think it will continue to go down because our development is diversified and we’re still doing some recruiting.”

Williams credited the job creation to the opening of Walmart, CVS Pharmacy and some smaller employers.

“We also have some folks who are working at the Defense Intelligence Agency as well,” Williams explained. “We still have 5,000-plus residents who are driving out of Greene every day to work elsewhere and we’d like to create enough jobs that they don’t have to hit the road to go to work.”

Albemarle County’s 4.8 percent unemployment in December 2010 was its lowest since November 2009 and Charlottesville’s 5.9 percent tied its December 2009 rate, the statistics show.

Albemarle County’s jobless rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point between December 2009’s 5.0 rate and 2010’s 4.8 rate, the statistics show. There were 1,029 more people employed in the county in 2010 than the same month in 2009 and about 40 fewer unemployed.

More than 350 additional Charlottesville residents were employed in December 2010 compared with the same month in 2009, while the number of unemployed residents was slightly higher by 44, the commission’s figures show.

“It’s good news,” said Timothy Hulbert, president and chief executive of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. “People who are in chambers of commerce tend to be optimistic anyway, but it’s been hard these past few years to find optimism. It’s coming back, though, especially after a good holiday shopping season.”

From December 2009 to December 2010, about 2,500 more people were employed in the metropolitan statistical area, according to the employment commission. There were 257 fewer people unemployed between those two months as well.

“It’s encouraging to look at the year-to-year and see job growth,” said Michael Harvey, executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development. “The pace of job growth is still slow and we’re still down about 700 total jobs from December 2008, but it looks like we’ve reached bottom and things are starting to look up.”