Unemployment Rates Fall Throughout Region; Demand for High-Tech Workers Up, but Job Growth Slow, Reports Show
Unemployment rates fell throughout the Washington region in April as employers strained to fill their needs for technology workers and other employees, District and federal labor department reports showed yesterday.</br></br>The low jobless rates demonstrated a widespread demand for workers. Regionwide, only 3.3 percent of adults seeking work were unemployed in April, down from 3.4 percent in March and 3.6 percent in April a year ago. The unemployment rate in the suburbs dropped from 3 percent in March to 2.9 percent in April, according to D.C. Department of Employment Services data that are not adjusted for seasonal work patterns.</br></br>The District's jobless rate sank to 7.2 percent in April from 7.8 percent the month before, including seasonal adjustments.</br></br>But employment in the region grew by only 1.8 percent over the 12 months ending in April, a clear measure of the difficulty employers are having finding workers, economists said.</br></br>By far, the strongest job growth over the year was in high-tech categories, prompting some analysts to wonder how long technology companies can continue to lead the economy ahead.