Alexandria’s recently reported unemployment rate was down from a year before and on the lower end of what has been seen citywide during the past year.
But like much of the rest of Northern Virginia, there also has been an exodus in the total number of city residents with jobs.
With 95,318 residents counted in the civilian workforce and 2,956 looking for jobs, August’s unemployment rate was 3%, according to figures reported Sept. 30 by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
That’s down from 3.3% in August 2025. Over the past 12 months, the city’s jobless rate has ranged from 2.9% to 3.7%, according to an ALXnow analysis of state data.
Unemployment rates grew in 2025 after the Trump administration began cutting the federal workforce. Before the cuts began to ripple through the local economy, Alexandria’s jobless rate had stood below 3% for 43 consecutive months, bottoming out at 1.9% in November 2021 and again in December 2023.
Regional workforce development leaders have voiced concerns about the double-whammy of the pandemic and Trump era cuts impacting the workforce across the area. Added to the mix is the high cost of local living, fueled by housing costs, which has caused some local residents to move out of the region in search of a better salary-to-living cost environment.
Alexandria’s employment count of 95,318 in August showed the impact of those trends, being down 2.4% from a year before.
Neighboring Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church all have been grappling with some of their lowest employment counts in more than four years, even as unemployment rates have shown improvement:
- In Arlington, August’s jobless rate was 2.8%, down from 3.1% a year before
- In Fairfax County, the rate of 3.3% was down from 3.4%
- In Falls Church, the rate of 3.3% was down from 4%
Across Northern Virginia, August saw a jobless rate of 3.3%, with just under 1.69 million employed in the civilian workforce and about 57,300 seeking jobs. A year before, in August 2025, the figures were 1.73 million employed, 60,300 seeking jobs and a resulting unemployment rate of 3.4%.
In the Northern Virginia area, the unemployment rate has hovered between 3.2% and 3.7% over the past year. Until February 2025, the area’s jobless rate had been below 3% for 40 of 41 consecutive months.
Across the D.C. metropolitan area, August’s jobless rate of 3.8% was down from 4.2% a year before, with 3.44 million employed in the civilian workforce and about 131,000 seeking work.
The D.C. metro area was among 234 of the nation’s 387 metropolitan corridors to have a lower year-over-year jobless rate. Rates were higher in 126 areas and unchanged in 27, according to figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics released Sept. 30.
Among all metro areas, Cleveland had the lowest jobless rate for the month at 1.8%, followed by Bismarck, N.D., at 2%. El Centro, Calif., had the highest rate, at 21.9%, followed by Yuma, Ariz., at 19%.
Among the nation’s 56 metro areas with populations greater than 1 million, Cleveland recorded the lowest jobless rate in August, while Fresno, Calif. had the highest at 7.8%.
A total of 230 metro areas had unemployment rates below the U.S. average of 4.3%, with 142 areas above the national rate and 15 equal to it.
Figures represent non seasonally adjusted data. All August 2026 figures are preliminary and subject to revision.
While the D.C. metro area’s employment rate improved from a year before, the region still led the nation in the year-over-year decline in overall employment (off 66,000) and the percentage decline (2%), based on nonfarm payroll figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Image via Tim Gouw/Unsplash
