WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate in the D.C. metropolitan area in October was 3.6 percent – unchanged from September, but down from 3.9 percent a year ago.
Baltimore’s metro unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent last month, up from 3.6 percent in September, but still lower than in 2016 when the unemployment rate in October was 4.3 percent in Baltimore.
The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said unemployment rates fell in 341 of the 388 metropolitan statistical areas it tracks, rose in 33 and was unchanged in 14 areas.
Two cities with a population of 1 million or more tied for the lowest unemployment rate. Both Minneapolis and Nashville checked in with a jobless rate of 2.3 percent in October.
Cleveland still has the highest unemployment rate among big cities, at 5.2 percent.
Among all metropolitan areas, Ames, Iowa, had the nation’s lowest jobless rate in October, at just 1.4 percent, followed closely by Columbia, Missouri, at 1.55 percent.
El Centro, California, had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 20.9 percent in last month.
