RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The city of Martinsville's jobless rate remained the highest in Virginia in February.
The Virginia Employment Commission says the city's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 16.7 percent, down from 18.1 percent in January and down from 17.7 percent a year ago. The statewide rate for February was 6.1 percent.
Nationally, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for February was 8.7 percent. Rates dropped from last year in 344 metropolitan areas, increased in 19 and were flat in nine.
The local jobless rate rose slightly in February but remains well below the level from a year ago.
The Fredericksburg-area unemployment rate was at 5.8 percent, up from 5.6 percent in January but down from 6.4 percent the year prior. For Kim Weber at Taskforce Staffing in Fredericksburg, there has been little change in the amount of people looking for work or the amount of employers willing to hire. She says most of them are looking for temporary workers to complete special projects.
Stafford fares best in the region with a 5 percent jobless rate in February. At 8.8 percent, the City of Fredericksburg had the region's highest jobless rate, but it was down from the month and year prior.
Arlington County had Virginia's lowest jobless rate with 3.9 percent in February, followed by 4.3 percent in Loudoun and Fairfax counties.
The Danville region had the highest unemployment rate among Virginia's metropolitan regions at 8.7 percent. The Washington metropolitan region that includes Arlington and Alexandria had the lowest jobless rate of 4.7 percent.
