Cardinal News Op-ed: “The report from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia says federal job cuts and tariffs will halt the state’s job growth”
 

VIRGINIA – A new column in the Cardinal News details that as Winsome Earle-Sears has backed Donald Trump’s attacks on Virginia jobs and tariff chaos, the Commonwealth is slated to lose jobs this year and face the highest unemployment rate in a non-pandemic year in 11 years. In July, unemployment in Virginia rose for the 7th consecutive month. Columnist Dwayne Yancey writes: 
 
“The forecast warns that ‘delayed federal layoffs and postponed tariffs’ mean that job losses are ‘projected to intensify’ during the rest of the year. The center expects Virginia will lose 22,500 jobs over the second half of this year, and finish the year at -11,700 jobs [...].”
 
Sears has a long pattern of backing Trump’s attacks on Virginia jobs despite the devastating consequences for the Commonwealth. She previously was caught on tape downplaying the attacks on Virginia jobs: “the media is making it out to be a huge, huge thing… and I don’t understand why.” Sears also said she would help Trump “get the job done” and that she’s “supporting what the President is doing.” 
 
Cardinal News: Economic forecast says Virginia will lose jobs this year, have virtually no job growth in 2026

• The report from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia says federal job cuts and tariffs will halt the state’s job growth.
• We often write that Northern Virginia is the state’s economic engine. It’s our largest metro and supplies 42% of the state’s general fund revenue. What drives the Northern Virginia economy is the federal government, and Trump is now reducing the size of that federal government. While that may or may not be good for the U.S. economy (feel free to debate this), it’s definitely not good for the Virginia economy. 
• The forecast warns that “job losses are expected to continue into early 2026” with a recovery not starting until the second quarter — April to June. It will take the rest of the year to balance out those first-quarter job losses. The year 2026 is “projected to close with a net gain of only 300 jobs — effectively resulting in zero employment growth,” the forecast says.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that Virginia’s unemployment rate has now risen for the seventh straight month, standing at 3.6% in July.
• The Weldon Cooper Center economic forecast sees that rate continuing to rise to 4.7% in June 2026 before it starts to edge lower. That would be the state’s highest rate since February 2021, when Virginia and the nation were coming out of the pandemic.
• Still, more federal job cuts are coming; some of those workers took buyouts and won’t count as job losses until later in the year. The forecast projects a net loss of 9,300 government jobs by year’s end.

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