Central Virginia’s unemployment rate stayed stable through November, according to figures released Tuesday by the Virginia Employment Commission.
The Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area — which is made up of the city, as well as the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene and Nelson — had a 5.4 percent unemployment rate in November, equal to October’s figure and a tenth of a percentage point higher than November 2009’s 5.3 percent.
That’s good, though not great, news, area business leaders said.
“We’re treading water. Unfortunately, the water’s deep,” said Timothy Hulbert, president and chief executive of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. “We want to get those numbers down and there’s a lot of evidence — from car sales and factory orders being up to the Dow and Nasdaq figures rising — that it could happen sooner than later.”
Charlottesville’s rate declined to 6 percent in November from October’s 6.1 percent. That compares with November 2009’s 5.7 percent rate. Albemarle County’s 5 percent rate was lower than October’s 5.2 percent but higher than November 2009’s rate of 4.8 percent, figures show.
Albemarle had the lowest unemployment rate in Central Virginia, followed by Greene and Fluvanna counties’ 5.3 percent rates.
Buckingham County had the highest regional rate at 9.4 percent, up from October’s 8.8 percent and November 2009’s 8.1 percent. Louisa County’s rate rose to 7.9 percent in November from 7.2 percent, but it was still lower than November 2009’s 8.2 percent rate.
“It was pretty much a month of maintaining the status quo with a few dips and increases, but nothing that major,” said Ann D. Lang, economist with the employment commission. “Smaller counties like Buckingham have smaller populations and there can be wide swings in the rate with a relatively small number of people either being employed or unemployed.”
While Central Virginia’s unemployment remained stable, the city of Martinsville’s jobless rate remained the highest in Virginia in November, with an 18.9 percent unemployment rate, compared with 17.6 percent in October. That was still lower than the 19.9 percent Martinsville had in November 2009, however.
Virginia turned in a 6.6 percent unemployment rate for November, with Arlington County having the lowest rate at 3.9 percent, figures show.
The Danville region led metropolitan areas in Virginia with an unemployment rate of 10.8 percent. The Washington metropolitan region had the lowest jobless rate of 4.8 percent.
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