November 14, 2008

The Virginia employment commission just released its annual list of numbers and in just one year Charlottesville has lost close to 500 jobs.

In numbers released yesterday Charlottesville region's total employment fell by 0.5 percent to almost 102,700 workers.

“It’s not surprising in this economy that's there's been some job loss, but I think we have sustained our economy fairly well and things are in pretty good shape here, but times are challenging, “ said Tim Hulbert, Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Hulbert says, during most of 2007 Charlottesville’s numbers reflected job growth.

“We did notice in 2007 over the course of a full year our jobs in the area did increase although they began to erode a little bit towards the end of the end of 2007,” said Hulbert.

According to the Virginia Employment Commission the majority of lost jobs were in the construction and manufacturing industries.

There are a few companies that have announced layoffs in the coming months, including Circuit City, Lexis - Nexis and Luck Stone.

“We're in tough economic times we know that we got some good things coming down the road,” said Hulbert.

Like the arrival of the Defense intelligence Agency, which Hulbert says could bring up to 800 jobs to Albemarle County.

Other metropolitan areas like Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond all gained more jobs than they lost, between September 2007 and September of this year.

The Charlottesville Metropolitan Area includes Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene and Nelson.