Though down from a month before, the Washington region’s unemployment rate was part of a general early-spring drift upward year-over-year.
With 3,514,072 in the civilian workforce and 96,713 looking for jobs, the regional jobless rate of 2.8 percent in March was down from 3 percent in February but up from 2.6 percent from March 2023, according to figures reported May 1 by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Washington area was one of 269 metro corridors posting higher year-over-year joblessness, with 89 showing declines and 31 unchanged.
Among all 339 metro areas, the lowest March jobless rates were reported in Burlington, Vt. (1.6%) and Rapid City, S.D., and Sioux Falls, S.D. (1.9% each).The highest rate was found in El Centro, Calif. (16.1%).
Among metro areas with populations above a million, the lowest rate was recorded in Nashville (2.4%) with the highest emanating from Riverside, Calif., and Las Vegas (5.1% each).
A total of 208 metro areas had unemployment rates below the national average of 3.9 percent in March, with 169 above and 12 equal to the national figure.
In Virginia, the March unemployment rate of 2.4 percent was down from 2.9 percent a month before and 2.8 percent a year ago. The lowest jobless rates were found in Staunton/Waynesboro and Richmond (2.1% each) with the highest in Richmond (2.9%).
In terms of non-farm employment, which also is tracked by federal officials, the highest raw employment increases year-over-year were found in the New York City (+118,700), Houston (+67,800) and Miami-Fort Lauderdale (+66,500) metro areas.
The highest percentage gainers were Ocean City, N.J. (+19.4%), Madera, Calif. (+6.5%) and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (+5.9%).
