Northern Virginia will start adding jobs this fall, according to a new report from the Stephen Fuller Institute at George Mason University.
Like the rest of the DMV, Northern Virginia got slammed during Trump 2.0, and the unemployment numbers are still growing with people who took the fork in the road during DOGE and left the workforce. Now, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.
"It's outperforming by underperforming less," says Keith Waters at the Stephen Fuller Institute at George Mason University.
"DOGE did not hit Northern Virginia as hard as it did the rest of the region, which you can kind of expect. The District is most heavily reliant on [the] federal government. Suburban Maryland is reliant on life services, which are not particularly popular with this administration."
He says the institute’s forecast now calls for employment to grow by October; that’s two months earlier than the previous forecast.
"It's still too early to say that that's turned a corner," Waters adds. "But the fact that that's kind of taken a pause in its decline is potentially one of the reasons why the region's economy is looking a little brighter than it otherwise would have."
He says the Northern Virginia economy sustained the twin economic shocks of losing jobs and grants since Trump took office. Now, he says, the region is acclimating and is set to grow later this year and into 2027.
