Arlington’s unemployment rate has risen to its highest point in nearly four years.
A total of 5,061 Arlington residents were counted as seeking jobs in May, according to new figures from the Virginia Employment Commission.
That’s the highest total since the 5,523 recorded in July 2021, when the nation was still in the grip of Covid.
The May 2025 county unemployment rate of 3.3% was up from 3.1% in April, when 4,868 were counted as seeking jobs, and comparable to the 3.3% rate in March, when 5,040 were seeking work.
In May 2024, the jobless rate had stood at 2.2%, with 3,380 Arlington residents counted as unemployed.
In Falls Church, the 312 city residents reported as jobless in May represented the highest total since the 318 counted in September 2020.
Covid was the cause of a period of high unemployment in both jurisdictions, peaking in Arlington in June 2020 with 10,861 counted as jobless (7.4% of the total workforce) and in Falls Church the same month with 502 recorded as jobless (6.5%).
The spike in recent months largely is due to Trump-administration downsizing and its ripple effect on the regional economy.
The current figures locally are similar to those seen during recessions over the past quarter century, according to Virginia Employment Commission data.
Prior to the pandemic, Arlington last had seen more than 5,000 people seeking unemployment in August 2014. For much of the period between 2010 (when records are first available) and 2013, county unemployment varied between 5,000 and 6,000 in the wake of the recession that followed the housing bubble of the late 2000s.
Neighboring Fairfax County is seeking a similar trajectory, with the 21,705 residents counted as unemployed in May 2025 — the highest since mid-2021. Covid-related unemployment in Fairfax peaked at more than 62,000 (10.3% of the workforce) in April 2020 before receding.
Statewide in May 2025, unemployment totals stood at 160,990 (3.5%), marking the fifth consecutive month of increases.
State officials chose to focus on an increase reported in total statewide nonfarm employment for the month rather than the tick up in unemployment. Total May employment, reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was up 1,200 month-over-month and 49,400 year-over-year.
“The growth in nonfarm payroll employment shows that Virginia’s labor market remains resilient, and we are committed to equipping our workforce with the tools they need to succeed,” state Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater said. “The slight increase in the unemployment rate and decrease in labor force are indications that we must continue to support workforce participation.”
Virginia’s modern-day jobless peak came at the onset of Covid in April 2020, when 513,715 state residents were reported as unemployed, representing 11.9% of the commonwealth’s workforce.
May 2025 figures are preliminary and subject to revision.
