The number of Alexandria residents among the ranks of the unemployed stayed above 3,000 for the 11th consecutive month in March, according to new state data.
The 3,333 Alexandrians reported as seeking work in March was up 14.8% from 2,902 a year before, according to figures reported May 19 by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
The city’s unemployment rate of 3.4% in March 2026 was up from 2.9% in March 2025, according to state data.
The last time Alexandria had fewer than 3,000 residents counted as seeking work was in April 2025, at 2,819. Unemployment figures both in the city and regionally have increased as the Trump administration has moved to cut the federal workforce, impacting the regional economy.
Prior to May 2025, the last time Alexandria saw more than 3,000 residents counted as unemployed was in August 2021, as the nation was coming out of a year’s worth of Covid impacts.
The city’s Covid-era unemployment spiked at 9,942 in June 2020, representing a jobless rate of 10%. Figures then declined incrementally until returning to more typical rates by late 2021.
The year-over-year growth in those counted as unemployed in Alexandria for March 2026 was in line with those of its neighbors. Totals increased 11.4% in Arlington, 14.9% in Falls Church and 17% in Fairfax County, according to an ALXnow analysis of jobless data.
Across Northern Virginia as a whole, the number of residents counted as unemployed grew 15.6% to 62,518 year over year in March, according to figures reported by the federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The Northern Virginia unemployment rate of 3.6% in March was up from 3% a year before, according to BLS data.
Statewide, March’s jobless rate of 3.8% was up from 3.3% a year before, with about 4.32 million in the civilian workforce and just under 170,500 looking for work.
Across the entire D.C. metro area, March’s jobless rate of 4.1% was up from 3.6% a year before, with the number of people counted as unemployed — 142,151 — up 10.6%.
The D.C. region was one of 174 metro areas to see a year-over-year increase in joblessness, according to federal figures reported May 19.
Rates were lower in 172 metro areas and unchanged in 41, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with 25 areas having jobless rates of less than 3% and 10 areas with rates of more than 8%.
The national unemployment rate in March was 4.3%, not seasonally adjusted, little changed from a year earlier.
In March, Rapid City, S.D., had the lowest unemployment rate at 2%, followed by Burlington, Vt., and Honolulu at 2.2% each. El Centro, Calif., had the highest rate, at 16.9%.
The largest year-over-year unemployment rate increase in March occurred in Wildwood-The Villages, Fla. (up 2.2 percentage points), with the largest decline recorded in Sandusky, Ohio (down 2 percentage points).
All March 2026 figures are preliminary and subject to revision.
Image via Tim Gouw/Unsplash
