Unemployment Falls in Prince George's County: Latest Figures

Unemployment has fallen this year in Maryland and across the country, and Prince George’s County is sharing in the good fortune, according to the latest federal jobless figures.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the county’s unemployment rate in August stood at 5.1 percent, following a steady decline over the previous year. In August 2014, the jobless rate was 6.2 percent.

Job growth has picked up this year in Maryland and across the country, according to the Washington Business Journal. Maryland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent in August, compared with 5.7 percent in August 2014.

The state added 2,700 jobs from July to August while Virginia picked up 900 jobs, the Business Journal reported. Combined, Maryland and Virginia had 94,000 more jobs in August than a year ago.

Jobless rates in August were down in all of Maryland’s 23 counties compared with the same month in 2014, according to BLS figures published by the Maryland Office of Workforce Information & Performance.

Montgomery County had the state’s lowest jobless rate at 3.8 percent; in August 2014, the rate stood at 4.6 percent.

The city of Baltimore had Maryland’s highest unemployment rate at 8 percent, but this was an improvement over the previous year’s figure of 9.1 percent.