Arlington’s jobless rate ticked down slightly from February to March, and sits second lowest among Virginia’s 133 cities and counties.
With 150,840 county residents employed in the civilian workforce and 3,056 looking for jobs, the unemployment rate of 2 percent was down from 2.1 percent in February and well below the rate of 3.6 percent recorded a year ago.
Figures were reported April 28 by the Virginia Employment Commission.
Modest month-over-month improvements in employment were reported in most of Northern Virginia. Jobless rates declined from 2.3 percent to 2.2 percent in Loudoun County; from 2.6 percent to 2.3 percent in Alexandria; from 2.5 percent to 2.3 percent in Fairfax County; and from 2.8 percent to 2.6 percent in Prince William County.
In Falls Church, the jobless rate ticked up slightly, rising from 1.9 percent to 2 percent.
For Northern Virginia as a whole, the jobless rate stood at 2.4 percent, down from 2.5 percent a month before and 4.1 percent a year ago. There were 1,614,214 Northern Virginia residents counted in the civilian workforce in March, with 38,900 looking for jobs.
Among Virginia’s cities and counties, the lowest unemployment rate was turned in by Madison County at 1.9 percent, followed by Arlington and Falls Church at 2 percent each and Poquoson and Greene counties at 2.1 percent apiece.
On the other side of the equation, the highest jobless rates were recorded in Petersburg (7 percent), Emporia (5.5 percent) and Martinsville (5.3 percent).
Virginia’s jobless rate for the month stood at 2.7 percent, down from 2.9 percent a month before and 4.5 percent a year before. The national jobless rate of 3.8 percent was down from 4.1 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.