The D.C. metro area’s September unemployment rate fell to 2.9%, down from 3.2% in August.
It is the first time the Washington metro’s unemployment rate has been below 3% since December 2007.
Baltimore’s unemployment rate was 3.1% in September, down from 4% in August.
Unemployment rates fell in 254 metropolitan areas in September and rose in 104 cities, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. They were unchanged in 31.
Among cities with a population of 1 million or more, Salt Lake City had the lowest unemployment rate in September, at 2%. New Orleans had the highest big-city jobless rate last month, at 4.2%.
Among all metropolitan areas, Ames, Iowa, and Charleston, South Carolina, tied for the lowest September unemployment rate, at 1.5%.
El Centro, California, an agricultural community in Southern California near the Mexican border, had the highest unemployment in the nation in September — 20.7%.
