Unemployment rates dropped slightly again last month in the District, Maryland and Virginia, according to a Friday report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Despite the declines, the rates in Maryland and the District continued to exceed the national average, which fell from 3.8% in February to 3.6% in March. The District maintained the highest unemployment rate in the country.
During that same period, Virginia’s unemployment rate dropped from 3.2% to 3%, Maryland’s rate dropped from 5% to 4.6% and the District’s rate dropped from 6.1% to 6%.
Altogether, 37 states and the District saw unemployment drops from January to February.
“This wasn’t an accident: this was the direct result of my economic plan to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out,” President Biden said.
The District continued to have the nation’s highest unemployment rate — followed again by New Mexico (5.3%), Alaska (5%), California (4.9%), Pennsylvania (4.9%) and Nevada (5%).
Nebraska and Utah both had a 2% unemployment rate, tied for the nation’s lowest, just as they were during the previous month.
Rhode Island saw the largest drop in unemployment, which decreased by half a percentage point from 3.9% in February to 3.4% in March.
Maryland’s 0.4 percentage point drop in unemployment was tied with California, Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey for the next-largest drop from February to March.
Virginia’s household survey data in March showed the state’s labor force increasing by 19,532 to 4,311,629 as the number of unemployed residents decreased by 4,922 to 131,101. The number of employed residents rose by 24,454 to 4,180,528.
The report said 763,800 District residents were working last month, up from 728,900 a year ago.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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