Unemployment has ticked up again across Northern Virginia, with Fairfax County seeing the biggest year‑over‑year increase, and nearby counties are not far behind, according to newly released data from the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
Fairfax County added 6,005 more unemployed residents in January compared with the same month last year, pushing the county’s unemployment rate from 2.7% to 3.8%. Loudoun County’s rate rose from 2.7% to 3.7%, while Prince William County’s increased from 2.9% to 3.8%. Each county added more than 2,000 unemployed residents over the year.
Those Northern Virginia rates remain slightly below the national average. The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 4.3% in January, up from 4% a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Keith Waters, the assistant director of the Center for Regional Analysis and Stephen S. Fuller Institute at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, said the local increases reflect continued changes tied to the federal workforce.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Mike Murillo over at WTOP
