The unemployment rate in the area of Arlington was considerably low during the months of August and September, even as the region made the transition between summer jobs and the fall job market. The jobless rate for the county was at a total of 3.5 percent, remaining flat and unchanged from the month of July. The percentage rate is a representation of the 133,685 residents who are employed in the county, with a total of 4,875 residents who are currently looking for work in the area. This information was provided by a report that was releases earlier on in the month from the Virginia Employment Commission. The area of Arlington has ranked lowest among all of the other cities in Virginia, as well as the counties, when it came down to its low unemployment rate.

Around the area of Virginia, specifically the northern area, joblessness was both up and down between the months of July and August. Certain counties saw a decline in unemployment rates, including Loudoun County and Fairfax County. In the meantime, the Alexandria County area saw a slight increase in the unemployment rate between the span of those two months. For Northern Virginia, the unemployment rate was at 4.3 percent during the month of August, which was a decline from the 4.5 percent during the month before. For the entire state as a whole, the unemployment rate was at 5.8 percent, which was a general decline from 6 percent during the previous month.

Ann Lang, an economist for the Economic Information Services Division at the Virginia Employment Commission, has said, “August is a transition month between the summer and fall labor markets.” The transition typically occurs when students give up their jobs to head back to school and when teachers head back to work after being off during the summer.

A number of different sectors within the economy did manage to see an increase in employment, which included the health services sector, private education sector, and finances sector. At the same time, the manufacturing sector saw some declines in employment, along with the construction sectors as well. When compared with last year, there has been 1.8 percent less construction jobs available in the state. For all of the different counties and cities in the area, Arlington had the lowest unemployment rate, along with Fairfax, Loudoun and Goochland County. For the metro areas, the lowest unemployment rate was in Northern Virginia as well as Charlottesville and Winchester. And, for the nation as a whole, Virginia took 13^th place for the overall best employment picture.