The Lynchburg area topped the totem pole of job growth in Virginia from April 2007 to the same month this year.
The city and the surrounding counties had 2.1 percent job growth in that time, the Virginia Employment Com-mission announced Wednesday.
Statewide, jobs grew by just 0.5 percent.
“Lynchburg, for this particular period, was creating jobs at about four times the rate that the state as a whole was,” said William Mezger, chief economist for the employment commission.
In April the Lynchburg area had 110,400 non-farm jobs, up from 108,100 last year.
Mezger said employment growth at the region’s colleges fueled much of the increase. The service sector, in which those jobs are counted, grew by about 2,400 positions, or 3 percent.
Within the service sector, transportation added 400 jobs and the retail trade added 300.
Government jobs in the Lynchburg area increased by 400. Half of those jobs were state-level and half were with local governments.
The manufacturing and goods-producing sectors, however, lost a total of about 400 positions, partially offsetting gains in other areas.
For several months this year, Lynchburg took the number two seat in year-over-year job growth. Winchester, which had been in the top slot, had the second spot in April with 1.7 percent growth.
While the number of jobs has increased, the unemployment rate in the Lynchburg area also rose in the past year.
The region had a 3.4 percent jobless rate in April, compared to just 3.1 percent in April 2007, according to the Virginia Employment Commission.
Virginia’s overall unemployment rate was 3.3 percent for the month, while the nation’s rate was 4.8 percent.
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