The Charlottesville MSA’s unemployment has gone from 2.8% to 5.6% in the span of a year, Brandon Shulleeta reports in the Progress. That rate is a bit rosier than the statewide 7% average, which is better still than the national 8.9% average. As always, the worst unemployment rate is in Martinsville, the city of 15,000 that’s about three hours SSW of C’ville. Charlottesville fares well, as it long has, thanks to the University of Virginia; those of us who work there have pretty secure jobs.
It would be interesting to see the unemployment rate of non-UVA jobs. Presumably that’s closer to the statewide average.
To determine the non-UVA unemployment rate, you just remove the UVa employees from the total population. However, in doing so, you are guaranteed to raise the unemployment rate.
Well, yes, I’m sure that’s how one would perform that simple arithmetic, only I don’t have the faintest idea of how to get the numbers to do that math. Do you?
The employment rate probably doesn’t accurately represent people like my husband who live here but work for out-of-area companies. Charlottesville’s employment rate was already slightly inflated to begin with, in my opinion.
Local employment rate and local unemployment rate are two very different things.
(I too work for an out-of-area company.)