The number of jobless residents in Fairfax County jumped by more than a third — 33.8%, to be precise — year over year to start 2026, according to new state data.
A total of 23,749 county residents were reported seeking work in January, up from 17,744 a year before, based on figures released April 16 by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
During the period, the county’s non-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate rose from 2.7% to 3.8% as the D.C. region’s economy continues to feel the effects of the Trump administration slashing the federal government workforce.
The D.C. region shed approximately 56,000 jobs in 2025, a 1.7% drop that surpassed all other major metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to researchers at the Brookings Institute, which launched a DMV Monitor dashboard last year to track the regional impact of the federal spending and workforce cuts.
“While declining job counts were heavily attributable to federal workforce cuts (a 14.3% loss), this trend was worsened by declining private sector employment,” researchers said in the March 6 report, which found that Black and female workers have been disproportionately affected.
Fairfax County had a lower spike in joblessness from the start of 2025 to the beginning of 2026 compared to most of its neighbors.
In Arlington, the growth was 54.7%, while in Falls Church it was even higher at 54.9%. Alexandria’s jobless total was up 33.9%.
In the City of Fairfax, the 477 residents counted as seeking work in January represented a 23.6% increase from a year before. The city’s jobless rate grew from 2.7% to 3.3% during that period.
Across Northern Virginia as a whole, the number of unemployed rose 30.9% to 64,087 in January, while the year-over-year unemployment rate increased from 2.8% to 3.7%. Since the start of the second Trump administration in January 2025, the largest number of Northern Virginia residents recorded as unemployed was 65,408 last November.
Across the D.C. metro area, the number of jobless grew 23.8% to 149,568 in January and the unemployment rate rose from 3.4% to 4.4% over the course of the year. Statewide, the number of unemployed was up 18.7% to 173,934 and the unemployment rate grew from 3.2% to 3.9%.
State figures were released a day after federal unemployment data for metropolitan areas in January. Monthly reports at both the state and federal levels continue to be delayed in the wake of last year’s seven-week federal government shutdown.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, year-over-year jobless rates grew in 252 of the nation’s 387 metropolitan areas, decreased in 101 metro areas and were unchanged in 34. The national non-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.7% from 4.4% a year before.
Among all metro areas, Honolulu recorded the lowest jobless rate for the month at 2.1%. The highest rate was reported in El Centro, Calif., at 18.6%.
Among the 56 metro areas with populations over a million, Honolulu had the lowest rate and Fresno, Calif., had the highest at 8.8%.
All January 2026 figures are preliminary and subject to revision.
