In June, Arlington County, Va., had the lowest unemployment rate in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area at 3.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the District of Columbia had an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, the highest rate among the 22 counties that make up the metropolitan area. Prince George’s County, Md., had the second-highest rate at 6.5 percent and was the only other county to exceed the 6.3-percent U.S. rate. The unemployment rates among the remaining 19 counties in the area ranged from 5.9 percent in Charles County, Md., and Fredericksburg City, Va., to 4.0 percent in Alexandria City, Va., and Falls Church City, Va. (See chart 1 and chart 2. The Technical Note at the end of this release contains metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

 

Twenty-one of the 22 Washington-area counties had lower unemployment rates in June 2014 than in June 2013. (See table A.) While no county exceeded the national rate decrease of 1.5 percentage points, the District of Columbia recorded the largest decrease at 1.3 points. Prince George’s County, Md., had the second-largest decrease at 1.0 percentage point. The remaining over-the-year declines in the area ranged from 0.9 percentage point to 0.1 point. Fredericksburg City, Va., had an unemployment rate that was unchanged since June 2013.

 

Table A. Unemployment rates for the United States, the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its components, not seasonally adjusted

Area	Back data	Unemployment rates			Change from
		Jun 2012	Jun 2013	Jun 2014 (1)	Jun 2012 to Jun 2014 (1)	Jun 2013 to Jun 2014 (1)
United States		8.4	7.8	6.3	-2.1	-1.5
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area		6.0	6.0	5.3	-0.7	-0.7
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Division		6.1	6.0	5.4	-0.7	-0.6
District of Columbia		9.3	8.9	7.6	-1.7	-1.3
Arlington County, Va.		3.9	4.0	3.6	-0.3	-0.4
Clarke County, Va.		5.3	5.1	4.6	-0.7	-0.5
Fairfax County, Va.		4.7	4.7	4.4	-0.3	-0.3
Fauquier County, Va.		5.2	4.9	4.7	-0.5	-0.2
Loudoun County, Va.		4.5	4.6	4.4	-0.1	-0.2
Prince William County, Va.		5.2	5.2	4.8	-0.4	-0.4
Spotsylvania County, Va.		5.8	5.7	5.1	-0.7	-0.6
Stafford County, Va.		5.5	5.5	5.0	-0.5	-0.5
Warren County, Va.		6.3	5.9	5.7	-0.6	-0.2
Alexandria City, Va.		4.3	4.4	4.0	-0.3	-0.4
Fairfax City, Va.		4.3	4.4	4.3	0.0	-0.1
Falls Church City, Va.		4.2	4.5	4.0	-0.2	-0.5
Fredericksburg City, Va.		6.2	5.9	5.9	-0.3	0.0
Manassas City, Va.		5.4	5.3	4.8	-0.6	-0.5
Manassas Park City, Va.		5.2	5.0	4.5	-0.7	-0.5
Calvert County, Md.		6.5	6.4	5.5	-1.0	-0.9
Charles County, Md.		6.9	6.8	5.9	-1.0	-0.9
Prince George's County, Md.		7.6	7.5	6.5	-1.1	-1.0
Jefferson County, W.Va.		5.8	4.8	4.3	-1.5	-0.5
Bethesda-Frederick-Rockville, Md. Metropolitan Division		5.8	5.9	5.1	-0.7	-0.8
Frederick County, Md.		6.3	6.4	5.5	-0.8	-0.9
Montgomery County, Md.		5.6	5.8	5.0	-0.6	-0.8
Footnotes (1) Data for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area and its components are preliminary for the most recent month.

Unemployment rates in 21 of the 22 counties in the Washington metropolitan area were lower in June 2014 than two years earlier. No county had a decline larger than the national decrease of 2.1 percentage points. The District of Columbia had the largest decrease at 1.7 percentage points. Jefferson County, W.Va., had the second-largest jobless rate decline since June 2012 (-1.5 percentage points). In the area’s remaining 19 counties with declining unemployment rates, the decreases ranged from 1.1 percentage points in Prince George’s County, Md., to 0.1 point in Loudoun County, Va. Fairfax City, Va., had an unemployment rate that was unchanged from June 2012 to June 2014.

June 2014 unemployment rates for the two metropolitan divisions in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan area were 5.4 percent (Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va.) and 5.1 percent (Bethesda-Frederick-Rockville, Md.). Both divisions had smaller unemployment rate declines than the 1.5-percentage point national decrease from June 2013 to June 2014.

 

The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release for July is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, August 27, 2014, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

Technical Note

This release presents unemployment rate data for states and counties from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, a federal-state cooperative endeavor.

Definitions. The labor force and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis. The universe for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over. Employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12^th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.

Methods of Estimation. The LAUS program is a hierarchy of non-survey methodologies for indirectly estimating employment and unemployment in states and local areas. Statewide data are produced through a modeling technique that uses estimates of payroll jobs from the Current Employment Statistics survey and unemployment insurance claims counts from the state workforce agencies to mitigate volatility in the direct CPS tabulations of employment and unemployment, respectively. Data for labor market areas, such as metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions, are produced through a building block approach and adjusted proportionally to state model-based totals. Data for counties within labor market areas are produced through a disaggregation technique. A detailed description of the LAUS estimation procedures is available in chapter 4 of the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/lau/home.htm.

Annual revisions. Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end of each year, usually implemented with January estimates. The adjusted estimates reflect updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model reestimation. All substate estimates are reestimated and adjusted to add to the revised model-based estimates.