Many people think of Washington DC as a place where everyone works for the government.  This is far from the reality of what this city is built upon and what the economy is revolving around.  The DC area is home to a very large shipping port as well as numerous huge universities and associated hospitals.  In fact, only about 15% of the DC area population works a government job.  The rest have jobs in other diverse sectors.  Healthcare and education sectors are huge in this city, as one could imagine given that there are dozens of famous colleges and universities in and around the metropolitan Washington DC area.

The area is home to many high tech businesses including many government contractors.  There is a very highly skilled labor pool in Dc, coming as a result of the many institutions of higher learning in the area.  It’s a very competitive employment environment.  This, coupled with the extremely high cost of living is not helping to attract transplants from around the country to work in non government sectors.  The DC area’s unemployment rate is a bit higher than the national average, but when you factor in the hundreds of thousands of government jobs helping to artificially inflate the real unemployment rate among non government workers, a more accurate number would be closer to 20%.

DC is home to a disproportionate number of workers in sectors that have been hit hardest by the recession.  Sectors like retail, restaurant and hospitality, and commercial construction, which have certainly seen better days, have taken massive hits over the past two years in the city.  There have been over 25,000 jobs lost in the construction sector alone over the past 24 months, and more will surely follow.  Our country’s capital is not fairing any better than some of the hardest hit states in the union in this recession.

Washington DC has always had a problem with a higher than average unemployment rate.  Those that collect government unemployment benefits are counted an officially unemployed as long as they can collect these benefits.  Once they are no longer eligible, they are no longer counted, which may be one of the reasons the unemployment rate in DC is not higher.  Sure the government has extended these benefits to many of those already receiving them, but those extensions will eventually run out and they will have to find work or join the ranks of those who have become discouraged or are underemployed, and who are not counted in the official unemployment tally either.

The DC area may get a small boost over the holiday season due to the creation of many temp jobs, but it is clear that an economic and employment revival is far off over the horizon for Washington DC.  The city will likely lag behind the rest of the US, as it has in the past, once the recession draws to a close.  Job seekers are no better off here than they are in Las Vegas or Detroit, unless of course they work for the government.