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“We’re going to get this economy moving. There are over 400,000 jobs to create over four years,” Governor Glenn Youngkin once said in an interview. The Democratic Party of Virginia is now keeping track of his progress on that goal with a dedicated website.
DPVA launched the website to track the new jobs that Youngkin has announced are coming into Virginia. The tally currently shows Youngkin at .6% of his stated goal to bring 400,000. “To meet that goal, he should have already created 29,167 jobs by April and so far has only created 2,525 towards his goal,” DPVA said in a press release.
Youngkin’s office typically makes an announcement after successfully bringing a new business or expanding an existing one within the commonwealth. Those announcements often cite specific numbers for how many new employees will be hired. The totals on the DPVA site reflect those announcements from Youngkin’s office.
Governors Northam and McAuliffe also sent out similar press releases when they were in office.
Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for Youngkin says the Democrats should look at the hard numbers on jobs. Th latest numbers show that the labor force in Virginia grew by more than 19,000 people in March.
“With tens of thousands of jobs added since taking office, we hope they are able to keep up with the economic developments and job announcements from the Youngkin administration,” Porter said. “We’re glad to have people chronicling the economic successes of Governor Youngkin and highlighting that Virginia is finally open for business.”
Labor participation rates are still below their pre-pandemic levels, however, and Democrats want more from Youngkin.
“The new job growth numbers are anemic – at best,” Del. David Reid (D-Loudoun) said in a press release Monday. “He can’t get a budget passed, he barely got all the bills signed on time, and he called us back into a Special Session with no plan.”
Republicans and Democrats have yet to finalize a budget for the next two years. The governor called the General Assembly back for a special session earlier this month to complete the work but legislators met for one day and have not met again.
Youngkin and House Republicans will have to find a compromise that Democrats in the state Senate will approve.
“At some point, you have to transition from campaigning to governing, and this Governor is clearly not interested in governing,” Reid said.
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