Cities in Virginia by employed residents
Virginia Beach, VA had the highest employed residents of 33 cities in 2021, at 217,921. Martinsville, VA had the lowest, at 5,639. The median was 16,097. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
All cities, 2021
Full ranking
| Rank | Cities | 2021 | Change on 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia Beach, VA | 217,921 | +1.9% |
| 2 | Richmond, VA | 117,805 | +2.1% |
| 3 | Chesapeake, VA | 115,021 | +3% |
| 4 | Norfolk, VA | 100,044 | +0.9% |
| 5 | Alexandria, VA | 92,548 | +0.1% |
| 6 | Newport News, VA | 82,314 | +1.4% |
| 7 | Hampton, VA | 61,416 | +2.5% |
| 8 | Roanoke, VA | 45,034 | +0.8% |
| 9 | Suffolk, VA | 43,663 | +3.8% |
| 10 | Portsmouth, VA | 40,523 | +1.8% |
| 11 | Lynchburg, VA | 35,261 | +1.3% |
| 12 | Leesburg, VA | 27,630 | +3.9% |
| 13 | Harrisonburg, VA | 24,560 | +2.5% |
| 14 | Charlottesville, VA | 22,964 | +0.7% |
| 15 | Manassas, VA | 22,201 | +2.9% |
| 16 | Blacksburg, VA | 19,798 | +6.8% |
| 17 | Danville, VA | 16,097 | +1% |
| 18 | Fredericksburg, VA | 14,628 | +4.3% |
| 19 | Winchester, VA | 14,014 | +1.9% |
| 20 | Petersburg, VA | 13,616 | +2% |
| 21 | Fairfax, VA | 12,706 | +3.4% |
| 22 | Salem, VA | 12,069 | +2% |
| 23 | Staunton, VA | 11,827 | +1.3% |
| 24 | Waynesboro, VA | 10,612 | +3.2% |
| 25 | Manassas Park, VA | 9,683 | +2.2% |
| 26 | Hopewell, VA | 9,298 | +2.3% |
| 27 | Colonial Heights, VA | 8,474 | +2.2% |
| 28 | Radford, VA | 7,846 | +7.4% |
| 29 | Falls Church, VA | 7,560 | +1.5% |
| 30 | Bristol, VA | 7,004 | -0.2% |
| 31 | Williamsburg, VA | 6,324 | +3.1% |
| 32 | Poquoson, VA | 6,257 | +3.3% |
| 33 | Martinsville, VA | 5,639 | +2.9% |
Other periods
About this ranking
Residents who did any work for pay or profit in the reference week, or were temporarily absent from a job, annual average.
More on how it is measured
- People aged 16 and over by place of residence, from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Active-duty military personnel and people living in institutions are excluded.
United States cities only for now. Counts people where they live, whatever the place of work, and someone with two jobs counts once. BLS estimates cities by splitting county estimates with Census Bureau employment and population data and unemployment insurance claims, so city figures are less precise than state ones. BLS publishes cities of 25,000 or more, and smaller cities in New England.
Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the cities are compared on one definition. 1 cities with data in other periods have no value for 2021 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.
How to cite
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Retrieved 2026-10-12.Citation styles
APA 7
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average (Cities in Virginia by employed residents, 2021) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24
MLA 9
Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average, Cities in Virginia by employed residents, 2021. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 30 Sept. 2026, https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/virginia-cities?period=2021. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.
Chicago (author-date)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2026. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. Cities in Virginia by employed residents, 2021. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/virginia-cities?period=2021.
Harvard
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026) Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average, Cities in Virginia by employed residents, 2021 [Dataset]. Available at: https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/virginia-cities?period=2021 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{bureau_cities_in_virginia_by_2021,
author = {{U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics}},
title = {{Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average: Cities in Virginia by employed residents, 2021}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Data set},
url = {https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24},
urldate = {2026-10-12},
note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/virginia-cities?period=2021. Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}
RIS
TY - DATA
AU - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
TI - Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average: Cities in Virginia by employed residents, 2021
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
PB - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
DB - Invokely
UR - https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24
L2 - https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/virginia-cities?period=2021
Y2 - 2026/10/12
N1 - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/virginia-cities?period=2021.
N1 - Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER -
Use this data in your AI agent
Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:
Rank Cities in Virginia by employed residents using official data, and cite the source.
rank_places {"indicator":"employed_residents","level":"municipality","within":"Virginia","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=employed_residents&level=municipality&within=Virginia&limit=10Questions
Which city has the highest employed residents?
Virginia Beach, VA, with 217,921 in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Which city has the lowest employed residents?
Martinsville, VA, with 5,639 in 2021.
Where does this ranking come from?
Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12. 1 cities have no value for 2021 and are not ranked.