Nearly 30,000 Washington-area workers joined the jobless ranks over the past two months as the unemployment rate ratcheted up almost an entire percentage point — and all signs point to more bad news on the horizon. May and June’s unemployment rate marked the first time this year the region saw upticks in joblessness, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And more job cuts are on the way, positioning Washington to have the worst job growth in a single year since the recession ended.

“We’re just catching up with the rest of the nation in terms of bad economic performance,” said University of Baltimore economist Richard Clinch. “This region has been highly dependent on the federal government, which has been in delay mode … and the national economy isn’t growing so there’s nothing to move us forward.”