The federal government accounts for about one-third of the jobs in the District but is still outpacing the private sector as the biggest driver of employment growth in the region, a newreports shows.
The District’s job growth during the last three months of 2010 accounted for more than one-quarter of the jobs gained in the entire Washington area — and many of D.C.’s new jobs came from the feds.
On a year-over-year basis, D.C. gained about 8,000 jobs in January compared with January 2010, a moderate increase of 1.1 percent. Of those, federal jobs were up by 5,200 and private sector jobs by 3,200, according to the D.C. Office of Revenue Analysis.
But the city doesn’t have to be so dependent on the feds to drive its economy, city Planning Director Harriet Tregoning said at an economic development forum last week. She added that the city’s largest employers are medical and educational institutions, which combine for 15 percent of city jobs.
However, less than one-quarter of those jobs are held by District residents. A big reason is because roughly one-third of jobs at those institutions (hospitals and universities, for example) are in the service sector. And it’s tough to live in D.C. on a service employee’s salary.
“I think this is a conversation we as a city have not actually tried to have with employers,” Tregoning said.
