Local employment conditions appear to be holding up better than expected given federal-government cutbacks and their ripple effects across the broader economy.
“Is the situation as dire as we were thinking? Right now, I don’t think so,” said David Remick, executive director of the Alexandria-Arlington Regional Workforce Council.
That body met June 26 to explore and continue responding to changing economic conditions. As its name suggests, the body oversees workforce-development initiatives, including the Alexandria Workforce Development Center and the Arlington Employment Center.
Remick said resources to assist those facing employment challenges have not been overwhelmed by need.
“The good news is we continue to be a bit ahead of the game to help support those individuals that are looking for help,” he said.
The economic figures currently available for analysis seem to confirm that the jobs picture has become cloudy, but is not catastrophic.
“This may not be as bad as we thought they were a couple of months ago, but we still don’t have enough data to see what’s actively available,” said Marisa Hayes, a senior research analyst with Northern Virginia Community College’s Labor Market Intelligence initiative.
Across Northern Virginia, the number of people counted as employed in April was actually slightly higher than a year before — 1.63 million compared to 1.61 million. But the rate of growth, approximately 1.4%, is lower than normal.
Seemingly confirming that trajectory, a survey by Lightcast Analyst found that while the number of job postings across Northern Virginia continues to fall, the rate of the decline is slowing significantly.
Across Arlington and Alexandria, the number of residents counted in state data as unemployed rose 59% from April 2024 to April 2025, when it stood at 8,186.
“This is not insignificant,” Hayes said, although figures for April 2025 showed a slight month-over-month decline in overall joblessness in the two jurisdictions.
“It has come down a little,” she said, acknowledging that “one month obviously does not make a trend.”
Remick said there were reasons to be cautious about data currently being used, since there has not been enough time to fully analyze what it means.
While there currently are about 8,000 reported as unemployed in Arlington and Alexandria, “it could very well be three times that,” he said.
Remick acknowledged there were concerns that the region’s economic situation could turn more severe in coming months.
“We’re moving into summer, there’s maybe another round of layoffs, there will be people who took their original packages that will end in September,” he said. “So I have no idea what fall’s going to be like.”
At the meeting, Lisa Bauer, who represents Goodwill of Greater Washington on the council, said it would be helpful if data could be broken down more narrowly than what she described as a 30,000-foot view.
She acknowledged the difficulties in providing that information in an evolving situation, but asked for “something we could work with — if not at the ground level, at least at 1,000 feet.”
