DC area unemployment falls to 3 percent

Virginia's statewide unemployment rate in January was 2.8 percent, and Maryland's unemployment rate was 3.7 percent. (Getty Images/iStockphoto/glegorly)

WASHINGTON — On the heels of a strong December jobs report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has released November jobs data for major metropolitan areas.

The Washington region’s unemployment rate in November fell to 3.0 percent, from 3.2 percent in October, and down from 3.5 percent a year earlier. The numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

As of November, 103,143 Washington-area residents were registered as unemployed.

The region’s civilian labor force in November was just over 3.4 million, about 15,000 more than a year earlier.

Unemployment rates were lower in 290 of the 388 metropolitan areas, with the lowest unemployment rate in Ames, Iowa, at just 1.2 percent.

Among metro areas with a population of 1 million or more, Minneapolis reported the lowest November unemployment rate, at 2.0 percent.

Cleveland and Las Vegas tied for the highest large-city unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent each.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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