According to one expert, the abysmal unemployment rate of 30 percent in D.C.’s Ward 8 that’s been thrown around in the media lately isn’t exactly the most up-to-date figure. In fact, it’s not even the lowest unemployment rate in the District.
Ward 7, also located across the Anacostia River, actually has the District’s lowest unemployment rate, according to Brookings Institution Research Analyst Benjamin Orr. Using the most recent data available from the U.S. Census, Orr says Ward 7’s unemployment rate of 20.7 percent is the highest in the city. Ward 8 follows with 18.6 percent of residents unemployed.
But those — most notably Vincent Gray’s administration and its mantra of “One City” — who use the disparity in quality of life for residents across the river, still have ammo.
“The new estimates … show that those two wards are still in crisis, and Mayor [Vincent] Gray was right to highlight the need to work together to make sure all residents experience the revitalization of the District,” Orr writes.
