Washington DC has the highest unemployment rate in the US

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has been a concerted effort to destroy specific fields by laying off federal employees and ending and limiting contracts and grants. You can be "highly qualified" with a PhD and 20 years of high-level experience in something related to international development, science, or education...but if the jobs in your field got cut in half, where do you work?

And yes you can try to shift to another field, and people are obviously doing that, but this isn't the kind of roaring job market where that's easy to do. 10 years ago half the social scientists I knew transitioned to research or UX design in tech. Now tech companies are doing layoffs. It's hard.

+1

I work in the nonprofit sector and can report the elimination of federal funding has decimated the “do good” infrastructure domestically and abroad.

I’ve seen so many talented people lose jobs/careers as orgs necessarily downsized (dramatically) or shut down altogether.

I’m hoping I survive the continued downsizing. I’m not sure what I would try to pivot to if I’m kicked to the curb (especially at my age: too young to retire, too old to catch the eye of younger hiring managers).

Most of the non profits are scams just to funnel money and continue to keep themselves afloat and funded

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The highly qualified people are qualified in things not found useful outside of govt, in fact they are probably not useful with in either , it's some type of jobs program for those educated in things that worthless

they were not productive to begin with. I worked for a firm that paid very very well. We were bought out by a large foreign company. We had to give them a set rate of return on their investment each year. So that was after salary and expenses.

My CEO took route, 100 percent in person no exceptions. Tightly manage everyone. Put bosses right by staff. Have everyone pretty much work 8 am to 6 pm with no set lunch at all just grab something and eat at desk Everyone available and in person and he put us all in one building. we even had internal staircases and our floors were all on top of each other.

He could pay people 100-150 percent above market value and have loyalty. We also had around 60 percent less people than companies our size and 60 percent less rental space, 60 percent less medical costs, 60 percent less 401k matches. And our medical and 401K plans super good as less people on them so could afford better.

I hired one DC govt worker and she was complaining she had as much work every two weeks as she had three months to complete in her Fed job. She did not clear 60 days.

[Anonymous]

The drug dealers, thieves, and panhandlers seem to be doing okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people in DC don't want to work and they are surviving on Govt assistance, section 8 housing and others form of Govt payments.

You watch too much television. None of that is true. What kind of life does assistance and Section 8 get you, exactly? If it's so great, why doesn't EVERYONE do it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has been a concerted effort to destroy specific fields by laying off federal employees and ending and limiting contracts and grants. You can be "highly qualified" with a PhD and 20 years of high-level experience in something related to international development, science, or education...but if the jobs in your field got cut in half, where do you work?

And yes you can try to shift to another field, and people are obviously doing that, but this isn't the kind of roaring job market where that's easy to do. 10 years ago half the social scientists I knew transitioned to research or UX design in tech. Now tech companies are doing layoffs. It's hard.

+1

I work in the nonprofit sector and can report the elimination of federal funding has decimated the “do good” infrastructure domestically and abroad.

I’ve seen so many talented people lose jobs/careers as orgs necessarily downsized (dramatically) or shut down altogether.

I’m hoping I survive the continued downsizing. I’m not sure what I would try to pivot to if I’m kicked to the curb (especially at my age: too young to retire, too old to catch the eye of younger hiring managers).

Most of the non profits are scams just to funnel money and continue to keep themselves afloat and funded

Sigh.

Only a fool fails to grasp the concept of nonprofit-led initiatives for people, communities, and societal interest.

[Anonymous]

OP's post is sloppy and confusing. It seems to draw on unemployment from the region for federal governemnt job loss, not just DC, but then goes on to compare DC, the city without the full region, with giant states like California.

How about some apples to apples?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC’s highly qualified workers can’t find jobs: ‘What is happening?’
Washington DC has the highest unemployment rate in the US
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/07/washington-dc-highly-qualified-workers-unemployment

Washington DC’s unemployment rate is now the highest since August 2015, excluding the pandemic, according to the most recent data. More than 300,000 jobs have been cut from the federal government, the region’s largest employer, since 2024. The cuts came after Donald Trump led a purge of federal employees, a move he said was meant to “eliminate waste” and a task he assigned to Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency” (Doge).

By January, federal public employment had fallen to its lowest level in at least a decade, affecting many other businesses and sectors. As a result, DC now has the highest unemployment rate in the country (6.7%), followed by California (5.5%). And the experts don’t believe the situation will improve in the short term.

Sorry, DC is tiny part of the MSA.

NOVA and Md are doing pretty solid and in line with other areas:

https://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laulrgma.htm

What is the msa?

A Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is a geographical region defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for collecting, tabulating, and publishing federal statistics. OP is using MSA data for one part of the comment and just DC for others and then whole states for yet others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people in DC don't want to work and they are surviving on Govt assistance, section 8 housing and others form of Govt payments.

You watch too much television. None of that is true. What kind of life does assistance and Section 8 get you, exactly? If it's so great, why doesn't EVERYONE do it?

a lot of them do. Tell me how many people in SE DC (east of the river) have real jobs. most of the housing there is section 8 and noone has a real job. I have properties there and understands the situation in and out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has been a concerted effort to destroy specific fields by laying off federal employees and ending and limiting contracts and grants. You can be "highly qualified" with a PhD and 20 years of high-level experience in something related to international development, science, or education...but if the jobs in your field got cut in half, where do you work?

And yes you can try to shift to another field, and people are obviously doing that, but this isn't the kind of roaring job market where that's easy to do. 10 years ago half the social scientists I knew transitioned to research or UX design in tech. Now tech companies are doing layoffs. It's hard.

+1

I work in the nonprofit sector and can report the elimination of federal funding has decimated the “do good” infrastructure domestically and abroad.

I’ve seen so many talented people lose jobs/careers as orgs necessarily downsized (dramatically) or shut down altogether.

I’m hoping I survive the continued downsizing. I’m not sure what I would try to pivot to if I’m kicked to the curb (especially at my age: too young to retire, too old to catch the eye of younger hiring managers).

Most of the non profits are scams just to funnel money and continue to keep themselves afloat and funded

Sigh.

Only a fool fails to grasp the concept of nonprofit-led initiatives for people, communities, and societal interest.

there are a lot of non-profits that are just a front for some kind of scam. Where do you think all this non-profit money goes? It is just a big waste and feds have to come down hard on it.