Although our country continues to endure high unemployment, we see some signs of modest improvement in the labor market. Nationally, private payroll employment rose an average of 140,000 per month over the three months ended in May, and firms have been lengthening the workweeks of their employees.
Virginia has been sharing in the recent improvement, with approximately 32,500 private-sector jobs having been created during the first four months of this year. Nonetheless, in all likelihood, a significant amount of time will be required to restore the nearly 8½ million jobs that were lost nationwide over 2008 and 2009.