DC metro unemployment rate unchanged at 3.6% in March

Unemployment rates cross the U.S. in March were lower than a year ago in almost all metropolitan areas reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including the D.C. metro — although the D.C. area’s jobless rate of 3.6% last month was unchanged from February.

The D.C. metro area’s unemployment rate in March 2021 was 5.3%.



The D.C. metro also ended March with 59,000 more jobs than a year earlier.

As of March, there were 121,000 unemployed adults in the D.C. metro, according to Labor Department statistics. That’s 47,000 fewer than a year ago.

A total of 108 metros had unemployment rates of less than 3% in March. The national unemployment rate in March was 3.8%, down from 6.2% a year earlier.

Among all metro areas, Logan, Utah had the lowest March unemployment rate, at 1.7%. That was followed by Burlington, Vermont,; Elkhart, Indiana; and Provo, Utah, at 1.8% each. El Centro, California, had the highest unemployment rate, at 12.3%.

Among metros with a population of 1 million or more, Salt Lake City had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.1%. Cleveland had the highest at 6.7%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics posts unemployment rates and job growth by metropolitan area online.

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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