Washington, D.C., Dethroned as Job Leader
A California county is experiencing 2.9 percent unemployment.
January 2, 2005
Washington, D.C., Dethroned as Job Leader
November marked the first month since December 2001 that Orange County,
California, had a lower unemployment rate than Washington, D.C., among America’s
metropolitan areas of 1 million or more people.
Orange County is alone at the top of the employment rankings, with a November
rate of 2.9 percent. It was tied with Washington in October.
According to the Orange County Register, the county’s unemployment
rate may be misleading. For one, many immigrants are not showing up in the data.
Also, many people may have stopped looking for jobs in the county because they
don’t feel that they can find a position that pays enough to cover housing
costs. Lastly, the job-growth rate, sometimes considered more important than the
jobless rate, is actually quite low in Orange County. Job growth is higher in
Las Vegas.
Among large cities, unemployment rates are also low in
Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, New Jersey (3.3 percent); San Diego (3.4 percent);
and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida (3.5 percent). The job market is
weaker in Michigan and Ohio. Detroit and Cleveland are experiencing high
unemployment, and unemployment is rising in Columbus, Ohio.
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