A summary is below. More details are available on our State Employment Page.

March 12, 2018

Summary

• West Virginia added 200 jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.4 percent in January according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

• Over the past twelve months, West Virginia added 3,500 jobs and the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point from 5.3 percent.

• In January, West Virginia's private sector added 100 jobs and over the past twelve months, it created 5,100 jobs.

• The number of unemployed West Virginians fell by 111 in January, and over the past year 4,312 West Virginians found jobs.

• West Virginia’s labor force participation rate increased to 53.7 percent from 53.6 percent in January.  Since last year, the labor force participation rate rose 0.6 percentage point.

• The national unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent in February.  State employment and unemployment data for February is scheduled for release on March 22, 2018.  The national employment situation report for March will be released on Friday, April 6, 2018.