By Adam Pagnucco.
Part One covered the methodology of this series. Let’s get started by looking at data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on total employment in the D.C. region’s ten largest jurisdictions.
First, let’s look at total employment in MoCo since 2001, the first year in the series. It has hovered around 450,000 payroll jobs for a long time, falling during the Great Recession, rising afterwards and falling again during the pandemic. The preliminary job count in 2024 (460,853) is below the period peak (472,495 in 2019) and is only 2.4% larger than its 2001 level (449,881). That is minimal job growth over 23 years.
The chart below shows one-year growth of total employment in 2024 for MoCo and the other nine large jurisdictions in the region.
MoCo had just 0.4% growth in total employment last year. That’s below the region total and behind six of our nine competitors.
The chart below shows 2024 total employment as a percentage of 2019 total employment. This measures the degree to which each jurisdiction has bounced back from the pandemic.
MoCo’s jobs base has not recovered from the pandemic and is second-to-last on this measure. Only Alexandria did worse.
Finally, the chart below shows total employment growth from 2007 (the year before the Great Recession) to 2024.
MoCo’s jobs base has barely grown at all in 17 years. Again, only Alexandria has fared worse.
We will look at private employment next.