Unemployment rates fell in 341 of the nation’s 372 metropolitan areas in November, including both Washington and Baltimore.
The Washington metro’s November jobless rate was 4.5 percent, down from 4.7 percent in October, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Washington’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in November 2013.
Washington’s unemployment rate peaked at 7.1 percent in January, 2010. Its 25-year low was 2.2 percent in December 1999.
Baltimore’s unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent last month, down from 5.6 percent in October and down from 6.5 percent from a year earlier.
Among big cities, Minneapolis still has the nation’s lowest unemployment rate, at 3 percent in November, but among all cities, Lincoln, Nebraska, unseated Fargo, North Dakota, with the lowest unemployment rate, at just 2.1 percent in November. Fargo’s November jobless rate was 2.2 percent.
San Bernardino, California, had the highest unemployment rate among big cities last month, at 8 percent.
