Employment figures don’t tell the whole story for Prince Edward

Looking at employment numbers alone, Prince Edward’s employment situation is not exactly rosy. According to state data released this week, the unemployment rate in June was 5.1%, good enough to rank 131st among Virginia’s 133 counties.

Reports from the Virginia Employment Commission show that Prince Edward has the highest unemployment rate in the region. Charlotte County is at 3.7%, Buckingham is at 3.7% and Lunenburg is at 3.3%. Cumberland County’s story, meanwhile, is a little more positive. Its rate fell from 3.5% to 3.2% while adding 21 people to the labor force. The statewide The unemployment rate remained stable at 2.7% from May to June.

But as mentioned, numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. It’s understandable that Prince Edward’s employment rate drops in June, as the population declines due to summer vacation at Longwood University and Hampden-Sydney College. Some on-campus jobs are also lost due to school holidays.

“I think it’s because Farmville/Prince Edward County is a two-college town where 15 to 20 percent of our population moves out during the summer months,” Stanley explained. “The unemployment rate in Prince Edward County goes up 1.5 to 2 percent every summer and goes down again in the fall when the students come back.”

As an example, he pointed to the fact that Panda Express closes every summer in Longwood.

“Because our economy is so tied to the academic calendar, I have to assume that this will have an impact on unemployment figures,” he added.

Government records support Stanley’s claim. Over the past seven years, not counting the pandemic, unemployment in Prince Edward began to rise in May and continued through August. Then we see the rate start to fall again in September each time.

More jobs planned

When asked for details on unemployment in each county, Virginia Workforce Certified Economic Developer Mario L. Camardella referred to the Virginia Employment Commission’s local community profile published for June.

Prince Edward County had 103 new unemployment claims in June, including 40 in the accommodation and food services sector. According to the VEC report, the number of unemployment claims in health and social services was second with 21, followed by transportation and warehousing in third with six. The remaining new unemployment claims included unemployment claims in other services with five, followed by three each in construction, administration and support industries, two each in retail trade and finance and insurance, and one each in wholesale trade, information trade and unclassified.

Of the 103 new applications in Prince Edward, 64 were from women and 39 from men, the VEC report said. Almost three-quarters of these new applications, 76, were from black residents, 21 of them were white, five from other and one from Asian.

Prince Edward has a total civilian workforce of 10,219 as of June 2024, of which 9,699 are employed. As of May, the county had a total civilian workforce of 10,227, of which 9,803 are employed.

The unemployment numbers, as we’ve previously reported, will soon change. More than 100 jobs will be available within the next six months when Wawa, Harbor Freight and Five Pillars Meats begin operations. All three are in different stages of construction, but the goal is to have them all operational by the end of the year.

How about Employment figures in Buckingham?

According to the county’s VEC Community Profile report, Buckingham saw 34 new unemployment claims in June. Accommodation and food services lost seven jobs, followed by health, social assistance and other services with five job losses.

In Buckingham, there were three new unemployment claims each in June in the construction, administration and support, and manufacturing sectors, followed by wholesale trade with two, and one each in the real estate, professional services, educational services, and other sectors.

Twenty of the new claims in June were filed by women in Buckingham County, according to VEC, while 14 were filed by men. Broken down by race, there were 15 new unemployment claims each from white and black residents, with four from the other category.

Buckingham has a total civilian workforce of 6,763 as of June 2024, of which 6,515 are employed. As of May, the county’s workforce totaled 6,720, of which 6,499 were employed.

Buckingham County County Administrator Karl Carter said he was working to provide insight into the county’s employment numbers, but did not respond by deadline.

View of Lunenburg

There are both positives and negatives to the latest employment figures in Lunenburg County. According to data released this week, 5,157 people were employed in Lunenburg at the end of June. That’s down from the same period last year when 5,195 people were employed in the county. However, that’s an increase from the previous month. At the end of May, only 5,139 Lunenburg residents were employed.

One of the positive aspects of the report is the fact that the civilian workforce continues to grow. At the end of June, 5,335 people were employed. In May, the number of employed people in the county was 5,294.

Lunenburg County Executive Mike Hankins said the closure of Pennington Seed and Sundies has hurt employment, but he hopes to have better news to share soon.

“The potentially good news is that two new stores could be opening soon – one in Kenbridge and another in Victoria,” Hankins said. “I can’t give you any details as this is still a work in progress.”

note: Herald editor Brian Carlton also contributed to this story.