The unemployment rate in the D.C. metro area in January was 6%, down from 6.5% in December. January’s D.C.-area unemployment rate was still twice what it was a year earlier, at 3% in January 2020.
The unemployment rate in the District itself fell 7.9%, down from 8.8% in December. The unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted.
The D.C. region gained or regained 26,400 jobs in January, but the area’s civilian labor force still remains down by 203,765 from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Unemployment rates were higher in January that a year earlier in 376 of the 389 metropolitan areas BLS tracks.
Among metros with a population of 1 million or more, Los Angeles had the highest unemployment rate in January, at 11.5%. Los Angeles also had the largest year-over-year increase, up 7.1%.
Salt Lake City had the lowest big city unemployment rate at 3.5%
Among all metros, El Cento, California, had the highest unemployment rate in January, at 16.5%. Logan, Utah, had the lowest at 2.5%.
BLS posts monthly metropolitan area employment data online.
