Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Washington, D.C. economy

Posted by at 2:27 PM

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 30, 2008 4:02 PM

    http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/10/27/daily56.html

    D.C. area reports 4% unemployment rate for Sept.

    The D.C. area has the second lowest unemployment rate (4 percent) in the country for September among areas with 1 million or more people, according to Department of Labor statistics released Wednesday. The local unemployment rate was up from 3 percent in September 2007

    Oklahoma City reported the lowest unemployment rate for September at 3.5 percent.

    The Department of Labor reported employment data for 369 metropolitan areas.

    The agency also examines the employment outlook of several subdivisions of metro areas. The Bethesda/Gaithersburg/Frederick area, with an unemployment rate of 3.4 percent for September, was the lowest in the country among these subdivisions.

    The D.C. area has 40,7000 more jobs than it did a year ago — the third strongest gain in the country, behind Houston and Dallas. That is an increase of 1.5 percent — putting the region in the top five when considering job growth percentages.

    Nationwide, unemployment was 6 percent for September -- a year ago, it was 4.5 percent.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 30, 2008 11:32 PM

    "The D.C. area has 40,7000 more jobs than it did a year ago — the third strongest gain in the country, behind Houston and Dallas. That is an increase of 1.5 percent — putting the region in the top five when considering job growth percentages."

    That really is staggering...The whole world is burning down around us and DC is GAINING JOBS!!!!

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  3. VaxalonOctober 31, 2008 8:33 AM

    To be honest, I don't think things are "burning down"... at least, not yet.

    The real damage is happening to the much-vaunted "investor class" and not so much to ordinary folks, so far. I'm sure they'll find ways (like bailouts) to shift the damage onto the ordinary folks and really hit us, but so far unemployment hasn't gotten really out of hand. Remember that historically, an unemployment rate of 4-5% is necessary for labor mobility.

    That being said, things are ready to start burning in earnest.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 31, 2008 11:57 PM

    The investor class? Is that anybody that has a 401K, IRA or some stock market ownership? I think that qualifies at least 55% of employed Americans. That is why comparing this bust to the 1970's or 1930's bust is a lot different given the different variables.

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