The Washington region now has 124,600 more people holding down jobs than it did a year ago, putting the local area near the top nationally in employment rebounds.
Washington’s increase in payroll jobs from October 2020 to October 2021 puts it close to the top three in the nation, according to data reported Dec. 2 by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That trio:
• The New York City metro area, which added 247,300 jobs over the one-year period.
• The Los Angeles region, which was close behind at 227,500 despite still having one of the highest jobless rates in the nation.
• The Dallas-Fort Worth area, which continues to boom throughout the pandemic era, added 135,200 jobs during the period.
Washington’s total jobs count of 3,370,411 compares to 132,585 residents looking for work but not finding it, an unemployment rate in October of 3.9 percent. A year ago, it was 6.4 percent.
Washington was one of 386 of the nation’s 389 metro areas that saw lower unemployment rates in October. A total of 110 of those areas had jobless rates below 3 percent, with two metro areas posting rates of 10 percent or more.
The national, non-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for October was 4.3 percent, down from 6.6 percent a year before. Among all metro areas, 252 reported jobless rates lower than the national average, 127 above it and 10 on par with it.
Among all metro areas, jobless rates were lowest in two Utah communities – Logan, at 1.1 percent, and Provo, at 1.2 percent. Nationally, the highest jobless rate was found in El Centro, Calif., at 17.7 percent. Among the 51 metro areas with populations of more than a million, the lowest jobless rates were found in Salt Lake City (1.4 percent) and Oklahoma (1.9 percent), with the highest in Los Angeles (7.1 percent).
In Virginia, employment of 4,268,231 and joblessness of 126,949 in October equated to an unemployment rate of 3 percent, down from 5.7 percent a year before.
Among the Old Dominion’s metropolitan areas, unemployment rates ranged from 2.3 percent (Winchester) to 3.6 percent (Hampton Roads).