WASHINGTON — A day ahead of the Labor Department’s December unemployment report, it has released November jobless rates for the nation’s 388 metropolitan areas.
The Washington metro area’s unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in November, unchanged from October and unchanged from November of a year ago.
Baltimore’s unemployment rate rose in November to 4.1 percent, from 3.9 percent in October, though it matches Baltimore’s unemployment rate from a year ago.
The metro area with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation in November had a jobless rate that was less than half what it was in Washington: Ames, Iowa, led the list with an unemployment rate of just 1.5 percent in November.
Among cities with a population of 1 million or more, Minneapolis had the lowest November unemployment rate, at 2.4 percent. Buffalo had the highest, at 5.3 percent.
Among all cities, El Centro, California, a farming community near California’s Mexico border, continued to have the nation’s highest unemployment rate, at 19.8 percent in November.
