By Katie ShepherdAugust 9, 2023 at 5:26 p.m. EDT
The unemployment rate hit a 33-year low of 1.5 percent in Montgomery County in June, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reflecting an overall decline in joblessness.
Preliminary numbers show unemployment reached 1.7 percent in Maryland, 2.5 percent in the Washington metro area and 3.6 percent nationally in June, significantly lower than the peaks experienced in spring 2020 as the pandemic upended the economy and cost millions of workers their jobs.Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.
Solid, if slowing, job growth accompanied by low unemployment at the national level has raised hopes that the United States could avoid an economic downturn this year. And wages are rising nationally, too. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich at a news briefing on Wednesday lauded the milestone and credited county efforts to recruit new business, particularly life-science-related enterprises, and programs to educate and retrain workers as well as connect jobseekers with employers.
Elrich said the county, which is the third-largest bioscience hub in the nation, has built more than 1 million square feet in lab space since he took office in 2018. The county is continuing to expand its bioscience footprint with a $40 million investment in a partnership with the University of Maryland to construct an Institute for Health Computing that will focus on research related to artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“Even in the face of the economic trials of the pandemic, we’re seeing indications that our local economy is faring well and doing better than five years ago,” Elrich said.
While overperforming some national trends, Montgomery County reported a rising rate of office vacancy, an issue that has been highly publicized in the downtown cores of American cities but has also increasingly bled into the suburbs. Montgomery’s office vacancy increased by 4.6 percent in the second quarter of 2023 to 16.7 percent — a vacancy rate that outstrips the state of Maryland, at 12.5 percent, and the D.C. metro area, at 15.9 percent, according to data shared by the county executive’s office.
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Across the D.C. region, only Arlington County and Fairfax County had a higher office vacancy rate than Montgomery over the last quarter, with 22.1 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively. The office vacancy rate is rising faster in Montgomery than in any neighboring jurisdiction, according to an analysis shared by the executive’s office.
Elrich also noted that unemployment numbers do not reflect the complete economic health of the county, which will need to build tens of thousands of new housing units to meet the needs of its growing population over the next two decades. The figure does not capture anyone who has given up on finding a job. Nor does the unemployment rate capture the quality of employment — it does not reflect how many workers are in minimum-wage or low-wage jobs.Share this articleNo subscription required to readShare
“The other side of the housing crisis is actually a wage crisis,” Elrich said.
Several economic conditions, including strong income tax revenue and a rising minimum wage set by the county that hit $16.70 for businesses with more than 50 employees this year and $15 for most other employers, indicate that wages are also rising as unemployment is dropping, he said. But the median household income in the county is $117,345 — far out of reach for workers earning the newly raised minimum wage.
Elrich noted that county residents who may be working but only make minimum wage can hardly afford to live in an apartment with a $900 rent. “Good luck with finding that because they don’t exist,” he added.
In Maryland’s most populous county, a historically wealthy slice of the D.C. suburbs, about 8.5 percent of residents — nearly 90,000 people — live below the federal poverty line. Policymakers said Wednesday that they are focused on connecting people with programs to help.
“We want to make sure we’re engaging the [low-wage] population to make sure we keep moving the needle,” said Anthony Featherstone, executive director of WorkSource Montgomery, which connects jobseekers with new skills to make them more competitive in the employment market.
Bill Tompkins, president and CEO of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, said efforts to continue improving the county’s economy cannot rest despite the positive signs that the worst impacts of the pandemic have now faded. He said his organization is targeting 5,000 companies for expansion into Montgomery County, with the hope of creating more jobs and filling office buildings.
“While things are looking good, and are looking better, we’re not letting up,” he said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/09/montgomery-county-unemployment-low/