National employment situation numbers released this morning show payroll employment increasing by only 98,000 and the unemployment rate decreasing 0.2 percentage points to 4.5 percent. The professional and business services sector saw the largest growth at an additional 56,000 jobs and for the second straight month, retail trade lost nearly 30,000. Total employment is up 2.18 million from March 2016.  The relatively small jobs growth could be due to large February jobs numbers, boosted by unseasonably good weather […]

New metropolitan area employment and unemployment numbers released today show continued job growth for the Washington region with  18,300 jobs added in February. This is an increase of 62,400 jobs over February 2016, with the sectors of Professional & Business Services and Leisure & Hospitality leading the pack. The unemployment rate remains constant at 3.9 percent, below the nation rate of 4.7. Between February 2016 and February 2017, Suburban Maryland saw its largest job growth since 2000, […]

The US Census Bureau released the 2016 Population County and Metro/Micro Area Population Estimates. Between 2015 and 2016, the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area (Henceforth, the Washington Metro Area), increased its population by 53,508 between July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016.[1] This represents an increase of 0.9 percent, and continues the trend of slowing regional population growth; the region grew 1.1 percent between 2013 and 2014, and 1.0 percent between 2014 and 2015. Figure […]

From WAMU President Donald Trump’s initial budget proposal does not explicitly attack funding for the D.C. region’s transit agency, but if the plan’s aim of shrinking the federal workforce is realized, Metro could be damaged at a time when it needs every possible rider. Metro’s average weekday ridership is at its lowest level since 2003. System leaders are anticipating that some commuters will return in the summer after the disruptive SafeTrack rebuilding program ends and reliability […]

February National employment numbers were released this morning, providing the first picture of employment numbers under the Trump presidency. The US economy added 235,000 jobs and unemployment remained relatively unchanged at 4.7%, down from 4.8% in January. All sectors grew from February of last year except the information sector, which has seen consistent decline in the past year. Both labor force participation rate and the U-6 unemployment rate have remained steady at 63% and 9.2% respectively. January […]