Montgomery County’s preliminary 2025 payroll job count fell to 456,246 from 2024, leaving it slightly below its 2005 level of 458,809.
Seven of the D.C. region’s 10 largest jurisdictions lost jobs from 2024 to 2025, and the report says Montgomery was hit harder than most in the first year of Donald Trump’s second term.
Five large jurisdictions, including Montgomery, still have not regained their pre-pandemic 2019 jobs base, raising the question of whether the broader metro area slipped into recession last year.
Since the 2007 pre-Great Recession peak, Montgomery is one of only two major regional jurisdictions with net job losses, ahead of only Alexandria.
Local politicians blame the Trump administration for the latest decline, but the report argues Montgomery’s weak job growth predates that and reflects a decades-long problem.