At his weekly press conference earlier today, Mayor Vince Gray signed into law a bill that strengthen's the city's "First Source" law requiring government-assisted projects to fill at least 51 percent of any jobs created with District residents. more ›

Under a new law proposed by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown last week, District-based employers could no longer discriminate against someone for having been unemployed than they could for being black, gay, Jewish, or a woman. more ›

Good morning, Washington. Just as the weekend kicked off, the jobless numbers rolled in, and the District did not fare well. According to a Labor Department report released Friday, unemployment rose in D.C. to 11.1 percent in August. That’s up from 10.8 percent in July. Estimates put the total number of jobs lost in August around 15,000, and about 13,700 were lost in the public sector. more ›

The District Department of Employment Services reports that the jobless rate in the District of Columbia decreased by a tenth of a percentage point in October to 9.7 percent, the fifth straight month that D.C.'s unemployment rate has decreased. The slight drop nearly levels the District's unemployment rate with the national rate, which now sits at 9.6 percent. On the whole, total jobs are up 2.9 percent point last year -- though experts believe that the District rate's minimization is, at least in part, due to people ceasing their search for work and no longer being counted in the labor force. more ›

The unemployment rate in the District rose back to 9.9 percent in August, mostly due to the end of the Summer Youth Employment Program. The national unemployment rate stands at 9.6 percent. The District Department of Employment Services announced that on the whole, the number of jobs in the District decreased by 500, or a negative change of 0.1 percent over last August. The only labor category to post an increase in jobs in August was construction. more ›

According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics' data, the unemployment rate dropped 0.6 percent from April to May. more ›

The Washington Post profiles those shiftless millennials, the twenty-somethings who graduate from college but cannot wean themselves off the parental teat. Specifically, the story's about one of the immediate effects of the BFD: Insurance companies must allow children to remain on their insurance policies until their 26th birthday. Profiling one 22-year-old Bekah Steadwell, a Chevy Chase woman who graduated from Oberlin and works at the Wonderland Ballroom and Looking Glass Lounge and lives at home, the story finds the stormy lining on a silver cloud. The Post observes that "[s]oon, thanks to the health-care reform act President Obama signed into law Tuesday, Steadwell can piggyback on her parents in one more way." more ›

Buoyed by D.C.'s historically high 12 percent rate, the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area's unemployment figure rose to 6.9 percent in January 2010, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. That's a massive increase from the 5.4 percent rate recorded in January 2009. It's barely been a month since many jurisdictions surrounding D.C. saw unemployment figures hovering below the national average -- but this new regional figure certainly has us interested in seeing how the job market will fluctuate in the coming months. more ›

January unemployment figures are out today, and D.C.'s Department of Employment Services puts the District's number at 12.0 percent. That's up ever so slightly -- 0.1 percentage points -- over December, as DOES now says the previous month saw an 11.9 percent jobless rate. But note that December's figure has been revised since it was first reported. Initially, December appeared to have marked a new record, with 12.1 percent of the city's population unemployed. The revised figure instead puts December on par with October 2009. more ›

New jobs figures out today from the District's Department of Employment Services show that D.C. unemployment reached a record high of 12.1 percent in the month of December. That's an increase of 0.3 percentage points over the previous month, and a full 2.1 percentage points higher than the national average, which is holding steady at 10.0 percent. more ›

The Washington Business Journal reported on Wednesday that a new report indicates the recession actually ended in the first quarter of 2009 in the greater D.C. area. The economic report, compiled by Delta Associates and George Mason University Professor Stephen Fuller, points to relatively low unemployment across the metro area as a whole, and presumably there's evidence of growth in the overall region's economy. That's great! But it's a little tough to get too excited when the District of Columbia, taken by itself, just posted its highest unemployment figures ever. Obviously, D.C. doesn't exist in a vacuum, and its economy is deeply entwined with that of the nearby Maryland and Virginia suburbs, but ... it doesn't exactly feel like the recession ended months ago, does it? more ›

Are you one of the many who have been laid off, fired, sacked, or otherwise sent to an unemployment office in the past year? You've probably had more than one revenge fantasy about whomever it was that delivered the news to you. In Up in the Air, writer/director Jason Reitman paints a target on George Clooney's back and challenges his audience to identify with a guy who delivers this kind of bad news for a living to total strangers. more ›

The unemployment rate for the District of Columbia jumped to 11.9 percent in the month of October, its highest level since the current recession began, according to figures released today by the Department of Employment Services. That number marks an increase over the previous month, September, which saw an unemployment rate of 11.4 percent. The national unemployment rate for October was 10.2 percent. Today's news comes paired with an estimate that the District actually added 10,200 jobs in October, despite the increase in unemployment figures. A news release from DOES explains these diverging trends as being due to an increase in the District's labor force, with no change in the number of employed people. more ›

The District Department of Employment Services released its monthly jobs numbers this morning, and the news appears to be rather grim. D.C.'s September unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percent over August, up to 11.4 percent, marking a brand new high since the current recession began. August, with its 11.1 percent unemployment rate, had previously seen the worst D.C. jobs figures of the year. more ›

The August unemployment numbers for the District are out, courtesy the Department of Employment Services, and the news is rather dreary. After dropping slightly in July to 10.6 percent (down from 10.9 percent in June), D.C.'s unemployment rate for August was a whopping 11.1 percent, the worst number the city has seen since the recession began. The jump corresponds to an increase in jobless figures nationwide. The August national unemployment rate was 9.7 percent, compared to 9.4 percent in July. Maryland’s unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in August, unchanged from July, while Virginia posted a solid 6.5 percent rate, actually down from 6.9 percent. more ›

The D.C. Mayor's Office put out the latest Department of Employment Services numbers today, and the unemployment rate in the District of Columbia decreased to 10.6 percent in July, compared to June's 10.9 percent unemployment rate. The figures are still well above the national unemployment rate for the same month, which was 9.4 percent, down slightly from 9.5 percent in June. Unemployment is a mixed bag in the larger region: Maryland's unemployment rate was 7.3 percent in July, up from 7.2 percent in June, while Virginia posted a 6.9 percent rate, down from 7.1 percent. more ›

The unemployment news just doesn't seem to be getting better inside the District of Columbia. Monthly Department of Employment Services numbers are out once again today, and they report that the June unemployment rate was 10.9 percent, up 0.2 percent from the previous month. The District's unemployment numbers have been climbing since December, holding slightly steadier at just below 10 percent for several months before finally surpassing the figure in May. The news comes on the same day that Mayor Fenty has proposed eliminating 250 more city government jobs as part of his latest budget proposal, in addition to the roughly 1,600 he's already cut. DOES says there were 35,900 unemployed District residents in June. more ›

The District of Columbia's May unemployment rate was 10.7 percent, the D.C. Department of Employment Services announced today. That figure is up 0.8 percent from the April rate, and 4.1 percent higher than the same month in 2008. This is the first time D.C.'s unemployment rate has gone above the 10 percent mark since the recession began. It was holding at 9.9 percent or below for the last couple of months. Nationally, things also look bleak: the U.S. unemployment rate for May was 9.4 percent, up 0.5 percent from April, and 3.9 percent higher than in May 2008. The news comes paired with Labor Department data that shows that for the first time in months, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits from the government actually fell compared to the previous week. There is at least some indication that the drop in benefits rolls may be because more unemployed people are exhausting their benefits. more ›

The Department of Employment Services released the latest jobs figures this morning, and despite last month's modest improvement, things are once again looking worse. The April unemployment rate for the District of Columbia was 9.9 percent, up 0.2 percent from the March 2009 rate and the exact same as the February 2009 rate. The figure also shows a 3.5 percent increase in the number of unemployed D.C. workers over the same month last year. Nationally, the unemployment rate for April was 8.9 percent, an increase of 0.4 percent from the March 2009 rate. Back in December, D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi predicted the District's unemployment rate would reach 10 percent by 2010. more ›

The D.C. Department of Employment Services sent out a press release today touting the District of Columbia's March 2009 unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, which is down 0.1 percent from the 9.9 percent February 2009 rate. Could this mean we've seen the worst of the local job market, and won't ever top 10 percent this year? Not likely, especially considering Mayor Fenty's proposed city government layoffs haven't even been approved yet. The national unemployment rate for March was 8.5 percent, which is up 0.4 percent from February. more ›

In case you missed the news over the weekend, the February jobs numbers are out, and predictably, things look really, really bad. D.C.'s unemployment rate jumped to 9.9 percent (up from 9.2 percent in January), which you may recall is roughly the same figure D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi predicted back in December the city would reach sometime in 2010. Guess the economy went into the toilet a lot faster than Gandhi expected. Here's the Post's version of the story, which also includes numbers for Maryland (6.7 percent, up from 6.2 percent in January) and Virginia (6.6 percent, up from 6 percent). The national jobless figures were 8.1 percent in February, up from 7.6 percent in January. D.C.'s unemployment figures will surely go up even more in the coming months, what with Mayor Adrian Fenty's proposal to layoff over 700 city government workers.
more ›

Smug Washingtonians who like to tell themselves that we're insulated from the worst of the recession thanks to the federal government are eating their words today. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest jobs report today, and it showed a 1.1 point increase in unemployment for D.C. since December 2008. Virginia went up 1.0 points and Maryland 0.8 points (h/t Washington Business Journal). Overall unemployment rates for January were 9.3 percent in D.C., 6.2 percent in Maryland and 6.0 percent in Virginia. At this rate, D.C. could be well over 10 percent unemployment within a few months, the highest it's been since the early 1980s. You may recall that in December, D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi predicted the city's unemployment rate would reach 9.8 percent by 2010. Given where we are now, that estimate appears to have been rather conservative. more ›

Via the Washington Business Journal, there's some not thrilling new employment figures for the District of Columbia out. The Department of Employment Services today said that the unemployment rate for the city in September was 7 percent, up a substantial 1.3 percentage points over the same measure last year, and 0.1 percent from August. The national unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in September, up 1.4 percent over last year. more ›