Higher local unemployment since VA now has to count more people:
You may have noticed a significant jump in unemployment in the Charlottesville area. Virginia, in fact most states, had been basing their unemployment figures on population numbers from the 1990 census. The federal government had been using figures from 2000. Needless to say, when the states released their jobless numbers and the feds released theirs, they didn’t add up. This year the federal agency in charge is requiring states to use the 2000 census in their calculations, which has led to a jump, albeit a clerical one, in unemployment. Bill Metzger of the Virginia Employment Commission says our region’s unemployment now stands at 2.9 per cent. (rather than 2 per cent – still not too shabby!) Charlottesville’s jump in unemployment is due entirely to accounting.
