I-270 Corridor Has Nation's Lowest Unemployment Rate

The I-270 corridor stretching from Bethesda to Frederick has the nation's lowest unemployment rate among large metro areas in January, according to data released this morning by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Washington area (including D.C., Arlington, Alexandria, Md. and stretching into W.Va.) was one of only two metro areas that showed year-over-year non-farm increases in employment.

The Washington metro area was up 0.1 percent from January 2008 and the Fort Worth-Arlington, Tex., area was up 0.3 percent.

The nation's highest unemployment regions, to no surprise, still resides in Michigan, in the Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn area, which hit 14.2 percent in January; and in the Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills area, where the rate was 12.3 percent.

The largest over-the-year employment increase was recorded in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Tex., area, where 17,200 jobs were added between January 2008 to 2009.

-- Frank Ahrens
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