Chesterfield no longer as insulated

Chesterfield County is no longer out-performing the state when it comes to one of the most common barometers of economic health: employment.

As recently as February 1992, when the national unemployment rate spiked to 8.2 percent and 7 percent of all Virginians filed jobless claims, unemployment in Chesterfield never exceeded 4.8 percent. Read more

Will turn of calendar signal new page for Richmond area?

It’s a bit too early to call the bottom.

But as a new fiscal year begins, “green shoots” might be sprouting through the cracks. The pace of large-scale layoffs has slowed. In May, there were 1,066 mass layoffs in the region. None were announced in June or so far in July. And most of the remaining companies seem stronger – at least profitable – than those that went belly-up in the past 12 months (Circuit City, LandAmerica and Qimonda).

It’s also possible those green shoots are a mirage. More than 50,000 in the region are unemployed, according to May data from the Department of Labor. That is enough to fill the Diamond more than four times over. Read more