McDonnell touts gain of 71,500 Virginia jobs

RICHMOND

Jobs are slowly returning to the state, though perhaps not fast enough for the tens of thousands of unemployed Virginians looking for work.

Virginia experienced a net gain of 71,500 jobs from February through May, Gov. Bob McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling announced Thursday.

That figure may signal that the administration's pro-business message and outreach are paying off, officials suggested.

However, Virginia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in May - more than double the rate before the recession. The national average is 9.7 percent.

"There's a long way to go. We have a lot of Virginians still hurting," McDonnell said Thursday at a State Capitol event announcing the job totals. "There's a lot more to do to get our citizens back to work."

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures cited by McDonnell and Bolling show total jobs in Virginia grew from 3.58 million in February to 3.65 million through the end of May. However, those numbers are substantially outpaced by the more than 196,000 jobs Virginia shed between February 2008 and February 2010.

Those sobering numbers are one reason state officials aren't taking "a victory lap" yet, said Bolling, the state's chief job creation officer.

Roughly 80 percent of the jobs gained in recent months are in the private sector; the remaining 20 percent are government posts. And some of those likely are temporary jobs, such as census takers, or were funded with federal stimulus dollars that will expire.

McDonnell said he is confident many of the private-sector job gains will be maintained.

A similar story is told in the job vacancy listings tracked by The Conference Board, a nonprofit business research organization.

More than 178,000 online employment ads were posted in Virginia in June, according to an analysis by the group, an increase of more than 10,000 from the previous month. Computer-related fields, health care and sales are among those sectors with a demand for new workers.

In addition to the overall job gains, McDonnell and Bolling also trumpeted their efforts to recruit companies to Virginia and encourage existing firms to expand, which they said have led to 110 recent deals that will bring 7,154 jobs to the state.

Hampton Roads will get 14 percent of that total, or about 1,000 jobs, according to state figures.

One day earlier, the governor announced that Virginia closed the fiscal year with an estimated surplus of $220 million.

Republicans heralded the surplus as the kind of skillful budget management Democrats on Capitol Hill should learn. Virginia Democrats responded that McDonnell is taking credit for budget strategies and decisions made by his predecessor.

Either way, the economic announcements on consecutive days fit into the administration narrative of McDonnell and Bolling as results-oriented fiscal reformers. McDonnell further buffed that image Wednesday with a prime-time appearance on Fox News to tout the surplus.

Administration officials hope the toolbox of new economic incentives adopted by the General Assembly this year will aid them in closing more deals with companies that will create jobs and tax revenue.

In pursuit of that, McDonnell will travel to Europe on Saturday for a weeklong marketing mission. His trip follows the recent travels of Commerce and Labor Secretary Jim Cheng on an Asian trade mission.

Stateside, business and job growth remains a work in progress.

Although the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance this year successfully engaged two companies bringing 221 jobs to the area, corporate relocation and expansion decisions are coming slower because of the still sluggish economy, alliance spokeswoman Lisa Litwiller said.

Virginia Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Barry DuVal said the business leaders he has spoken with are "cautiously optimistic about job growth" but concerned about the regulatory policies emanating from Washington.

Feedback that state officials have received from corporate leaders suggests they are ready to create jobs again, Bolling said. "We just have to help them become comfortable that this is the time to make those expenditures."

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com