U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/a><\/p>\nDespite lower overall jobless rates, Northern Virginia\u2019s unemployment is rising faster than the national trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, unfortunately, we\u2019re underperforming the U.S. as a whole,\u201d economist Keith Waters said.<\/p>\n
Waters, the assistant director of the Center for Regional Analysis and Stephen S. Fuller Institute at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, said the local increases reflect continued changes tied to the federal workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big takeaway is that this is a continuation of the contraction in the federal workforce following the federal workers who took the deferred retirement package in October,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n
He said the effects of those decisions don\u2019t show up all at once, which can make unemployment increases look sudden.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly takes some time for these things to come through the system,\u201d he said, adding that federal contractors are also feeling the effects when contracts aren\u2019t renewed.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Waters said some government jobs could be added back later this year as agencies adjust staffing levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do kind of anticipate, through the end of the year, that direct federal employment might actually come back up just a little bit as maybe they hire some folks back for positions that they realized were a little bit more crucial than they needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to housing as a relative bright spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the numbers coming out of Northern Virginia, as far as demand for sale homes, have been surprisingly strong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Still, Waters cautioned that continued weakness in commercial real estate could eventually show up in local budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt puts more downward pressure on the commercial real estate industry, which might start to bleed into county budgets further down the line,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n
Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill acknowledged unemployment is rising, but said there\u2019s still plenty of job activity in the region despite federal workforce shake-ups.<\/p>\n
In an interview with WTOP,\u00a0Hill pointed to what he described as a significant number of open positions across Northern Virginia, saying, \u201cI still have 66,000 job openings as we speak in Northern Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said while some workers have been laid off or displaced, the challenge is less about a lack of jobs and more about matching skills to available positions.<\/p>\n
Hill noted that the county is focused on helping workers \u201crecalibrate and reskill\u201d as federal contracting and employment shift.<\/p>\n
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unemployment has ticked up again across Northern Virginia, with Fairfax County seeing the biggest year\u2011over\u2011year increase, and nearby…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":741975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[305931,64,79,15804,70768,24915,67,132,68,305932,305933],"class_list":["post-741974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-bryan-hill","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-federal-workforce","tag-mike-murillo","tag-northern-virginia","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-virginia-department-of-workforce-development-and-advancement","tag-virginia-works"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116440026830893239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}