Unemployment rates across the Washington region hovered well below the national average in December, with Arlington and Loudoun counties leading the way.
The District, however, continued to struggle with record jobless rates.
Arlington County’s unemployment rate was 4 percent — the lowest in the Washington area — according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Monday.
“We’re not going to gloat about it,” said Arlington Board Chairman Jay Fisette. “A couple years ago we were at 2 [percent], so we’ve doubled.”
Fisette pointed to the large number of federal government jobs in his county, as well as the high education levels among Arlington residents, as reasons for the resiliency of his county’s job market.
Region
December 2009 jobless rate
December 2008 jobless rate
District
12.1 percent
8.2 percent
Montgomery County
5.2 percent
3.8 percent
Prince George’s County
7.2 percent
5.4 percent
Arlington County
4.0 percent
3.1 percent
Alexandria
4.8 percent
3.2 percent
Fairfax County
4.6 percent
3.4 percent
Loudoun County
4.6 percent
3.5 percent
Prince William County
5.5 percent
4.2 percent
U.S.
10.0 percent
7.4 percent
Loudoun, Fairfax and Alexandria also boasted unemployment rates below 5 percent. Montgomery County, at 5.2 percent, boasted the lowest unemployment rate in Maryland’s suburbs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ county-level unemployment numbers are not seasonally adjusted, meaning they do not reflect the usual vagaries of the December job market. Typically, December’s adjusted rates are higher because of the large number of temporary workers hired during the holiday sales season.
The national unemployment rate in December was 10 percent, close to its highest level since the Great Depression and dwarfing the rate in much of the Washington region. The District, however, was an exception.
The District’s 12.1 percent unemployment rate was one of the highest in the country, trailing just a handful of states including Michigan, California and Nevada.
“I think part of it is we have not really held folks that use public dollars accountable to hire D.C. workers,” said District Councilman Michael Brown, I-at large.
Brown also pointed to the high illiteracy rate and lack of job training among workers as some of the obstacles the District must overcome.
Maryland and Virginia both hung well below the national unemployment rate in December.
Virginia’s jobless rate was 6.9 percent, up almost 40 percent from the previous year but still well below the national average.
Maryland’s unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, more than 2 percentage points higher than its December 2008 level of 5.4 percent
Unemployment rates in both states climbed from November.
