Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) continues to throw his support behind federal job cuts and heightened tariffs, despite many Virginia officials’ and economists’ warnings of economic fallout.
In a CNBC interview yesterday (Monday), Youngkin acknowledged the pain that President Donald Trump’s economic decisions have already caused many Virginia residents. However, he argued that the layoffs are in the United States’ long-term interests and argued that tariffs will accelerate investments across the United States, including in Virginia.
“We need to rein in spending and re-establish fiscal reality [in] the federal government — and with that, yes, there will be job losses,” Youngkin said. “Virginia has a lot of federal employees and a lot of contractors.”
About 1,500 federal employees and contractors have filed for unemployment in Virginia, a Youngkin spokesperson recently told ARLnow. Youngkin has been quick to contrast that number with the roughly 250,000 open jobs in the Commonwealth, about 100,000 of which, the governor’s office says, are in Northern Virginia.
Federal layoffs disproportionately impact Northern Virginia and especially Arlington, which is home to about 24,000 civilian federal workers.
Although Youngkin said that the Commonwealth is “insulated a bit” from some of DOGE’s most severe impacts because of its emphasis on defense, national security and intelligence jobs, many experts have told ARLnow that economic consequences will be regionwide.
Nevertheless, the governor argued that Virginia — which CNBC named the nation’s top state for business last year — has a strong enough economy with enough job openings to absorb many of the worst impacts.
“These are good jobs,” Youngkin said. “Listen, they’re not perfect matches, [but] they’re high paying, good jobs that will require someone to possibly get some retraining or re-skilling … to go into a new field, but they’re really good jobs.”
He said his office has been clearing the path for people to file for unemployment, along with other assistance, though the Virginia Has Jobs website.
While acknowledging that job loss is “wildly disruptive and terrible for families,” the governor cast the slashing of D.C.-area federal agencies as a necessary step to reduce the national debt and an opportunity to re-energize the private sector.
“Virginia has got jobs — and listen, America has got jobs,” he told CNBC. “The bottom line is, what I think President Trump has been saying over and over again is, let’s reshore manufacturing. Let’s reinvigorate the middle class. Let’s create job opportunities.”
There is no doubt, President Trump’s economic plan will rebuild the middle class, bring manufacturing jobs back, and make sure America is the best place to do business in the world. pic.twitter.com/yxPB8w1r6Y
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) April 15, 2025
Youngkin tied this philosophy to his stance on tariffs. Retailers in Northern Virginia and across the country have been bracing for rising costs, particularly given tariffs of up to 245% on Chinese goods.
The governor argued that Trump’s current strategy both creates “negotiating room” to reset trade imbalances and incentivizes further investment in U.S. industry, including in Virginia. He pointed, for instance, to Nvidia’s plans to invest about $500 billion into U.S. manufacturing partnerships to build AI supercomputers.
The Financial Times first reported on these plans in March, before many of Trump’s tariffs went into effect.
“What we’re seeing is the long-term investment and the confidence in the long-term investment, which I think is reflective of the words we keep hearing out of President Trump — which is, listen, there’s a dislocation in the near term. There’s long-term opportunity,” Youngkin said.
The economy and DOGE cuts in particular have emerged as early talking points for Democrats in the race for Youngkin’s successor. The Democratic Party of Virginia’s first digital ad of the campaign cycle takes aim at a bump in Virginia unemployment claims and references ARLnow reporting on expected local impacts of federal layoffs.
Nevertheless, as the Commonwealth’s unemployment rate of 3% remains below the national rate of 4.2%, Youngkin continues to project confidence in Virginia’s economic prospects.
“We’re working hard to use those open jobs — and of course, support from the private sector and from the government — to help people transition from a job loss in the federal government to a job opportunity in the private sector,” he said.
