The D.C. metro area’s unemployment rate improved significantly in August, falling to 6.9% from 7.9% in July.
Even so, the D.C. region’s unemployment rate a year ago was just 3.2%.
The unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted.
The number of D.C.-area residents recorded as unemployed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was 235,099 in August. That’s 40,000 fewer than the previous month, but more than double those classified as unemployed in August 2019.
The Baltimore metro area recorded a lower unemployment rate in August than the Washington metro, at 6.8% — down from 7.7% in July,
Among metropolitan areas with a population of one million or more, Las Vegas had the highest unemployment rate in August, at 15.5%. That was followed by Los Angeles, at 15%.
Salt Lake City had the lowest large metro unemployment rate, at 4.7%.
Among all 387 statistical metropolitan areas for which BLS collects data, El Centro, California, had the highest August unemployment rate, at 22.9%, followed by Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii, at 20.7%.
The lowest unemployment rates in the nation in August were in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Logan, Utah, at 2.7% each.
