After years of leading the state in job growth, Prince George’s County was among the hardest-hit localities in the Washington region as the pandemic took root, walloping the same communities suffering from illness and deaths with steep job losses.
More than 63,000 people saw their jobs in this D.C. suburb evaporate between February and May 2020, a Washington Post analysis found, showing that even one of the wealthiest majority-Black jurisdictions in the country would not be immune from the economic tumult borne disproportionately by communities of color.
Two years later, officials say they are on track to hit pre-pandemic employment levels before 2022 is out — a rate even some of the most optimistic county boosters are relieved by.
