Richmond’s unemployed workers did the best they could to shake off yesterday’s bad news that the U.S. unemployment rate hit double digits. They got back to the main task: finding work. The nation’s jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent last month from 9.8 percent. The unemployment rate is the highest in 26½ years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported the number of people on employers’ payrolls fell by 190,000—more than economists, who just last week were hailing the end of the recession, had forecast.

The commercial real estate market in the Richmond area continues to reel from the recession, with the office vacancy rate expected to climb to 21.4 percent in the next six months.

Appliance and electronics retailer hhgregg Inc. has tapped some former Circuit City managers to run the two Richmond-area stores the Indianapolis-based retailer plans to open next month. Now hhgregg is looking to take advantage of other talent left behind when Circuit City Stores Inc. closed in March. “There is no question that there is a really talented base of former Circuit City employees in this area that we hope to capitalize on,“ said Andrew Eaton, a regional manager for hhgregg who worked for the now-defunct Henrico County-based electronics retailer for 13 years.

Once a mainstay in American shopping culture, the parent of Sears and Kmart stores took another step backward yesterday, announcing a surprising second-quarter loss that dimmed hopes about the ailing merchant’s future. Although Sears Holdings Corp. is paying down debt and has a $1.3 billion cash war chest—enough to give investors confidence in its financial footing for now—experts say it desperately needs to end years of declining sales if it wants to stay viable.

Work has begun to transform two former Circuit City stores in the Richmond area into locations for consumer-electronics and appliance retailer hhgregg. Indianapolis-based hhgregg will open two stores by Thanksgiving.

hhgregg, a fast-growing regional consumer electronics retailer plans to open multiple stores in the Richmond area this year, likely taking over some former Circuit City locations.

Circuit City Stores Inc.‘s Canadian operations have been sold. The defunct consumer-electronics retailer, which had its corporate headquarters in Henrico County, said yesterday that the sale of its InterTAN Canada Ltd. to telecommunications company Bell Canada had been completed. Bell Canada paid $116.8 million, plus $30.3 million for working capital, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Circuit City. Linens’N Things. Bombay Co. They’re all out of business, their stores shuttered, many employees laid off. But according to their old Web sites, they’re all still selling, or planning to sell, the same stuff they always did—everything from digital picture frames to leopard-print rugs. How can this be? Didn’t these companies shut down?

CHICAGO It was September 1985 when a 24-year-old Brian Dunn knotted his skinny leather tie and began a job as a sales clerk inside a small electronics store in Minnetonka, Minn., named Best Buy. He was unemployed and took the paid-on-commission job after his mother—an employee in the chain’s accounting department—convinced him to give the company a try.

Systemax Inc. has won an auction for Circuit City’s brand, trademark and Web site, according to a consulting firm hired by the defunct retailer. Systemax, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based consumer-electronics retailer, still must get approval from a bankruptcy judge today at a 2 p.m. hearing. It was unclear last night how much the company paid for the rights to the Circuit City’s e-commerce business and intellectual property.

In what Fortune magazine called the worst year ever for companies on its Fortune 500 list, the Richmond area held its own, though with some major footnotes. Seven companies are on the list, down from eight.

The bankrupt retailer is seeking court approval for its Web site, name and brand to be sold to Systemax. Inc., based in Long Island, New York, for $6.5 million.

Tanya Parker spent yesterday morning in a crowded warehouse unloading and sorting canned foods, dried pasta and gourmet candy corn—a far cry from what she did as a corporate events planner at Circuit City. It isn’t a temporary job she’s taken as she waits to return to a corporate suite somewhere. It’s a volunteer gig that takes her mind off her job search and helps others at the same time.

Consumers snapped up surprising numbers of flat-screen TVs, laptops, digital cameras and cell phones from Best Buy during its fourth quarter even as rival Circuit City was in bankruptcy and began liquidating its stores. The purchases helped Best Buy Co. Inc. boost sales by 10 percent, the company reported yesterday. Henrico County-based Circuit City Stores Inc. announced Jan. 16 that it would shut down and liquidate its stores. Its last store closed March 8.

When Darick Lane lost his job as an installation manager for Circuit City in November, he wasn’t sure what to do next. The Henrico County resident had a couple of choices but few prospects.