More Layoffs Hit VA As Federal Job Numbers Fall

Employers announced more than 400 layoffs in Virginia in February, as federal officials reported a decrease of 92,000 jobs nationally for the month.

So far in 2026, there have been 2,233 layoffs announced in Virginia by 14 different employers, according to the state's WARN notice archive, including nearly 700 jobs eliminated by recent Amazon Fresh closings.

Under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law, a company with 100 employees or more must give workers 60 days' notice of a layoff affecting 50 people or more at a single site.

Virginia companies announcing layoffs in February were:

• Speyside Bourbon Cooperage in Virginia, 6373 Lee Highway,
  Atkins
  • 52 jobs | Layoff | Effective April 23
• AOL, 11955 Democracy Dr., Reston
  • 108 jobs | Layoff | Effective March 1
• Huntington Ingall Industries - Mission Technologies, Virginia Beach
  • 74 jobs | Layoff | Effective April 17
• JCPenney, 6699 Springfield Mall, Springfield
  • 74 jobs | Closure | Effective May 29
• Saks & Company, 9214 Stony Point Parkway, Richmond
  
  • 40 jobs | Closure | Effective April 11
• Bahama Breeze, 2714 Potomac Mills Circle, Woodbridge
  • 62 jobs | Closure | Effective April 4

The 2,233 layoffs announced in Virginia in January and February were a nearly 67 percent increase over the 1,324 layoffs announced in January and February 2025.

Some layoffs announced earlier this year will take effect in March, including Yokohama Tires, which laid off more than 530 people after the company announced it was closing its Salem plant. In April, nearly 700 people will lose their jobs in several cities following the Amazon Fresh closures.

Nationally, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a decrease in jobs on March 6, which it said was affected in part by strike activity in health care. That included a nurses' strike in California, the New York Times reported.

As a result, the federal unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4 percent, from 4.3 percent in January, federal officials said. Job losses were highest in the information sector and in federal employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

In Virginia, 2,528 people filed initial unemployment claims in the week ending Feb. 28, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The state unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in December, the most recent figures released by federal authorities.