Ward 8’s infamous unemployment rate: fact or fiction?

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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.

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