Arlington will have to settle for being the bridesmaid, not the bride, in the most recent monthly jobs data.
With 161,555 county residents in the civilian workforce and 3,394 looking for jobs, the county’s unemployment rate of 2.1 percent in June was up a tick from 2 percent a month before and unchanged from a year ago, according to figures reported Aug. 2 by the Virginia Employment Commission.
That placed Arlington as second lowest among Virginia’s 133 cities and counties. Highland County led the pack with a jobless rate of 1.9 percent.
Arlington’s month-over-month performance was typical of most of Northern Virginia, where jobless rates either were flat, or slightly higher, compared to May.
Unemployment rates stood at 2.2 percent in Alexandria, up from 2.1 percent; 2.3 percent in Falls Church, up from 2.2 percent; 2.5 percent in both Fairfax (up from 2.3%) and Loudoun (up from 2.4%) counties; and 2.6 percent in Prince William County, unchanged.
In each of those jurisdictions, year-over-year jobless rates either were down from June 2022 or saw no change.
For the Northern Virginia region as a whole, the jobless rate of 2.5 percent, up from 2.4 percent in May and down from 2.6 percent a year before, represented 1,730,689 in the civilian workforce and 44,234 looking for jobs.
Among Virginia cities and counties, Alexandria and Falls Church posted the lowest jobless rates after Highland and Arlington counties, while Galax (5%) and the cities of Lexington and Petersburg (4.8%) had the highest rates.
A total of 63 Virginia cities and counties had unemployment rates of 3 percent or less during the month, with 17 at 4 percent or more.
Statewide, Virginia’s jobless rate was 2.8 percent in June, up from 2.7 percent a month before but down from 2.9 percent a year previously. The national rate was 3.8 percent, up from 3.4 percent in May and unchanged from a year before.
