Washington region’s jobless rate in May was up slightly from a year before, part of a general increase recorded nationwide.
With just over 3.5 million in the civilian workforce and just under 94,000 looking for jobs, the metropolitan area’s jobless rate stood at 2.7 percent in May, according to figures reported July 3 by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s up from 2.5 percent a year before.
Washington was one of 269 metro areas to report year-over-year increases in joblessness for the month. Rates were down in 83 metro areas and unchanged in 37.
Nationally, the non-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 3.7 percent was up from 3.4 percent a year before. A total of 212 metro areas had jobless rates below the national average (including 91 with rates under 3%), 162 above it (including five greater than 8%) and 15 equal to it.
Among all metro areas nationally, Burlington (Vt.) and Sioux Falls (S.D.) had the month’s lowest jobless rates at 1.7 percent, followed by Portsmouth (N.H.) at 1.8 percent. The highest rate was reported out of El Centro, Calif., at 15.4 percent.
Among metro areas with populations of more than a million, Birmingham (2.2%) had the lowest rate, Las Vegas (5.6%) the highest.
Across Virginia, the 2.6 percent unemployment rate in May was down from 2.8 percent a year before. Among metro areas outside Northern Virginia, Charlottesville posted the lowest rate (2.4%) while Lynchburg had the highest (3.2%).
As for non-farm employment, totals were up in 44 metro areas nationwide, down in one and essentially unchanged in the remaining 344.
The New York City (+144,400), Houston (+81,700) and Dallas (+68,000) metro areas had the largest year-over-year net increases in jobs numbers, while State College, Pa. (+11.5%) and Madera, Calif. (+5.4%) had the largest percentage increases.
