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Northern Virginia way ahead on job creation

Virginia Business
June 2004

Apparently the rich do get richer. Northern Virginia — already the state’s strongest economy — can now claim to be the fastest-growing job market in the country. Northern Virginia added about 50,000 jobs between March 2003 and March 2004, higher than any region in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Northern Virginia’s job growth helped drive the entire Washington, D.C., area economy, lowering its unemployment rate to just 3 percent, the lowest of any metropolitan area. The Washington region’s net gain for jobs during the one-year period was 2.2 percent, compared to a 0.6 percent job growth for all of 2003. Many of the new jobs came during the past six months.

Some predict the job market will stay strong at least through next year as the region continues to benefit from federal spending. Economist Stephen Fuller of George Mason University predicts Northern Virginia will add a total of 47,000 jobs this year and 51,000 next year.

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