The Virginia Employment Commission reports today that job growth in the state turned negative for the first time in 2008, with 31,100 jobs lost.  “The national recession finally caught up with Virginia,” begins a release. Locally, Charlottesville’s job growth went down 1.8 percent or 2900 compared with December 2007 figures, with construction, manufacturing, and service-providing industries getting particularly hard hit. Across the state, construction, trade, professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality services all saw negative job growth, while Private Education and Health Services (8,500 new jobs) and State and Local government (12,500 new jobs) saw an increase. Of all the 369 metropolitan areas in the nation in December 2008, the report said, Charlottesville’s, at 4.2 unadjusted unemployment, was the 29th best.

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