West Virginia’s unemployment rate drops

Work Force West Virginia image.


CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s unemployment rate fell to 6.4% in October, with the number of unemployed residents decreasing by 18,100.

Gov. Jim Justice announced the decline, saying October marks six months of decreases.

“Before the pandemic hit, we were churning out the best unemployment rates and total job numbers that West Virginia had seen in over a decade,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that the pandemic was like a cannonball to the stomach. But I’m encouraged to see that, month after month, our job numbers continue to improve and are trending back toward where they were before. But we won’t stop there, we want to continue to get better and better.”

The national unemployment rate fell to 6.9% last month.