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Back to Work, Slackers, No Excuses Now

The unadjusted unemployment in the Richmond region tumbled 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent from March to April, according to the latest Virginia Employment Commission report .

Unemployment fell across the entire state of Virginia, with workers returning from a sizable strike, recalls from furloughs around the Easter holiday, the resumption of work by seasonal construction workers, and hiring for the new tourism season.

Unemployment in the Richmond region was up from the 2.8 percent rate of April 2007, but it was well below the 4.8 level for the United States economy as a whole. 

Among Virginia's 134 individual counties and cities in April 2008, Arlington County, at 2.1 percent, had the lowest unemployment. The City of Martinsville city, at 10.1 percent, was the highest and the only jurisdiction with double-digit unemployment. No Virginia jurisdiction met the labor shortage criteria of 2.0 percent, or less, unemployment this April.