A new forecast suggests Virginia's economy is heading for a rough patch.
Prices will rise and employment will fall. That's the grim forecast from the folks at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia, which is now estimating more job losses than previously anticipated.
"There were 10,000 jobs lost in Virginia in 2025," says Joāo Ferreira, an economist at the Weldon Cooper Center. "And what we predict is that in 2026, that number can be up to 17,000 now under the new economic conditions."
The new condition for Virginia is a gross domestic product that's contracting. That comes on top of rising prices and spiking inflation because of the war in Iran.
"Circumstances appear to have shifted, and one of the reasons for this is definitely the international instability brought by the situation in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the increase in energy prices," Ferreira says.
The forecast predicts Virginia’s unemployment rate will continue to climb until early 2027.
