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.