Fairfax County’s jobless rate declined to 2.7 percent in September, approaching pre-COVID levels, although job growth remains less robust than might be anticipated.
With 593,123 county residents in the civilian workforce and 16,501 looking for jobs, the county’s unemployment rate was down from 3.4 percent in August and well below the rate of 6.1 percent recorded last year this time, according to figures reported Nov. 3 by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Fairfax’s jobless-rate decline was mirrored across the region, as month-over-month unemployment rates dropped from 2.7 percent to 2 percent in Falls Church; from 3.1 percent to 2.2 percent in Arlington; from 3 percent to 2.5 percent in Loudoun County; ffrom 3.8 percent to 2.7 percent in Alexandria; and from 3.8 percent to 3.2 percent in Prince William County.
In Northern Virginia as a whole, the jobless rate of 2.7 percent in September was down from 3.4 percent a year before, representing 1,558,670 in the civilian workforce and 48,803 looking for jobs.
Among Virginia’s 133 cities and counties, the lowest jobless rates for the month were found in Falls Church (2 percent); Arlington, King George and Madison counties (2.2 percent each); and Grayson and Richmond counties (2.3 percent). The highest rates could be found in the cities of Petersburg (8.3 percent), Martinsville (6.8 percent), Emporia (6.5 percent) and Hopewll (6.2 percent).
For the month, Virginia’s jobless rate of 3.2 percent was down from 3.8 percent a month before and stood at half the 6.4-percent rate of September 1920. The national jobless rate was 4.6 percent, down from 5.3 percent a month before and 7.7 percent a year before.