Washington Metro Loses 100,500 Jobs as BLS Shows 191 U.S. Metros Cut Unemployment
Updated
Updated · The FINANCIAL · Jul 2
Washington Metro Loses 100,500 Jobs as BLS Shows 191 U.S. Metros Cut Unemployment
1 articles · Updated · The FINANCIAL · Jul 2
Summary
100,500 payroll jobs vanished in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria region in May from a year earlier, a 3.0% drop that marked the largest employment decline among U.S. metro areas.
Federal workforce cuts and weaker related contracting drove the slump, with losses concentrated in Washington, DC-MD at 54,900 jobs, Arlington-Alexandria-Reston at 29,100, and Frederick-Gaithersburg-Bethesda at 16,500.
191 of 387 metropolitan areas posted lower unemployment than a year earlier, while 164 worsened and 32 were unchanged; the national unemployment rate held at 4.1%.
Las Vegas added 24,500 jobs, Salt Lake City 17,800 and San Jose 17,600, while Mansfield, Ohio logged the biggest unemployment improvement at 1.8 percentage points.
Bismarck and Sioux Falls had the lowest metro unemployment rates at 1.8%, while El Centro stood highest at 16.9%, underscoring a labor market that remains stable nationally but increasingly uneven locally.