More Jobs in DC Area, But a Higher Unemployment Rate? Blame Sequestration

By Whitney Teal

This is not a Lewis Carroll-esque riddle: How did the Washington, DC region add 44,000 jobs in June, but see the unemployment rate rise from 5.5. percent to 5.6 percent?

According to Labor Department statistics reported by The Washington Post, the federal government got rid of thousands of jobs in June, probably because sequestration budget cuts led agencies to offer early retirement to balance the books.

“That effect looks like it’s intensifying now, just because there’s been a pay freeze in place and some workers are worried that there may be layoffs in the future,” James Bohnaker, an associate economist at Moody’s Analytics, told The Post.

On the plus side, our area’s unemployment rate is well below the national average of 7.6 percent.