Report: Lynchburg leads state in job growth rate

By Bryan Gentry

Published: July 30, 2008

The Lynchburg region and Virginia reached record employment levels in June, with Lynchburg still leading the state in its job growth rate, although there was a statewide and local increase in the jobless rate.

The jump in unemployment is typical for June as students get out of school and look for jobs, said William Mezger, chief economist for the Virginia Employment Commission.

“We still … had more people working in Virginia than we’ve ever had before, but we also had a record labor force and we had more people looking for work because of the students coming out,” Mezger said.

The state had about 3.8 million jobs in June, and a prospective labor force of 4.2 million.

The labor force is defined as people who say they are working or looking for a job.

The Lynchburg area had 111,000 jobs in June, a 2,500 job increase from June 2007. The region had a labor force of 125,000.

With the number of jobs jumping 2.3 percent within the past year, Lynchburg had the fastest job growth rate of any other region in Virginia tracked by the VEC.

Most of the job growth was in the services area, according to VEC data.

Manufacturing jobs have decreased by 300 in the past year.