While the federal government may be hiring, a bruising round of fiscal 2010 budget negotiations around the region will result in thousands of state and local job losses beginning in July.
More than 400 positions are cut from Montgomery County by Executive Ike Leggett’s budget, 234 of which are currently filled.
In neighboring Fairfax County, Executive Anthony Griffin proposed the elimination of 524 positions, 400 of which are filled.
Nearly 250 teacher positions have been cut in Fairfax, as well. In Montgomery, teaching jobs were saved by skipping any raises.
Both counties’ budgets await final negotiations and approval by the county boards in coming weeks.
In the District, more than 1,600 positions will be dropped when the fiscal year begins in October. Almost 800 of them are currently filled. D.C. already has the highest unemployment rate in the region at 10.1 percent.
Throughout the region, nearly 632,000 people were without a job in February, according to the Labor Department, or 6.1 percent overall.
Mahammad Siddiqui, an economist who analyzes the D.C. region for Global Insight consulting, said he expected employment figures to be up by next year as the region begins to recover, but that state and local governments might not be the best place to look.
“The education and health sectors have been doing well in the area, and hospitality,” he said. “Things are so bad everywhere else in the country, if you’re relatively bad, you should feel a little better.”
