Richmond job opportunities outpace major cities
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The hottest job markets in the country aren't in major cities. Instead, smaller metro areas like Richmond look mighty at the moment, at least comparatively.
Why it matters: Nationwide, the labor market is slowing down, particularly for white-collar professionals in tech-heavy cities, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
By the numbers: The number of job listings in Richmond grew by 16.8% from February 2020 to October, according to new data from jobs site Indeed.
- San Francisco job postings, meanwhile, declined 37% in the same period and Seattle saw a 35% decline. New York City also saw a drop, by around 14%.
State of play: Small metro areas that saw gains had labor markets more weighted toward health care, and leisure and hospitality, says Allison Shrivastava, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab.
- Those two sectors accounted for more than 100% of net job gains in 2025 so far, Bloomberg recently reported.
Between the lines: The white-collar pullback is also partly due to the Trump administration's job cuts and the hiring freeze in place for much of the year.
- The D.C. area, which includes Northern Virginia, has seen a decline of 24% in job listings from February 2020 to October, per Indeed.
- That could help explain why statewide, Virginia saw a 2% decline in listings over the same period.
- Just three metros in the state — D.C., Winchester (-6.5%) and Charlottesville (-1%) — had declines. The rest saw an increase.
The bottom line: The job market looks a lot like the real estate market; it's all about location, location, location.
- And job openings are always industry-contingent.