More than 1-in-5 workforce-age residents filed for unemployment benefits from mid-March through Thursday in some of the hardest-hit communities in the greater Washington region as the coronavirus pandemic takes a devastating economic toll.
While there are several pockets of severe job losses across the region, a Washington Post analysis shows the pandemic’s economic effects are widespread, reaching into every jurisdiction and crossing socioeconomic lines. The findings are based on an analysis of jobs data from 1,272 Zip codes across Virginia and Maryland, as well as similar data from the District.
While poorer communities have generally been affected the most, the analysis shows many higher-income neighborhoods are also struggling. A Zip code centered in Sterling, Va., (20166) has a median income of $105,248, but 18 percent of its workforce-age residents have filed for jobless benefits, higher than in many areas with incomes half that amount.
Tourism-reliant areas of Maryland and Virginia have been reeling, mirroring trends seen elsewhere. Congressional Research Service reports note the economic impacts of the virus nationwide have disproportionately distressed areas that depend on travel, accommodations, restaurants and entertainment.
In Ocean City — where the economy is driven by visitors who fill its hotels and boardwalk — 21 percent of the workforce-age population has filed for unemployment. Three hundred miles away in Western Maryland’s mountains, areas around Deep Creek Lake have seen heavy job losses. Other deep pockets of job losses were seen near the Chesapeake Bay, as well as more populous regions near Baltimore.
In Virginia, troubled areas include the tourist-dependent and populous region from Virginia Beach to Williamsburg, areas along shuttered Shenandoah National Park, as well as poorer southern parts of the state.
Most claims are from those in the food services, retail, health care and manufacturing industries.
The rate of job losses in the immediate Washington metro area is similar to the average for the District, Virginia and Maryland.
Of the 1,395,200 million people who filed for unemployment benefits across the three jurisdictions since March, 36 percent of the claims were from jurisdictions in the immediate Washington metro area — a region that contains about one third of the population. (The Washington metro area, for the purposes of this analysis, includes the District; Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland; Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Arlington counties and the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas and Manassas Park in Virginia.)
Some of the most affected areas in the D.C. region were in southern Prince George’s County inside the Beltway and Northern Prince George’s County outside the Beltway. They also include pockets of Zip codes in Fairfax and Prince William counties in Northern Virginia.
In Virginia, Zip code 23223 in east Richmond, which is 76 percent African American and has a median income of $40,507, has been among those hurt the most. Another is Zip code 24401 — in Staunton, part of the Shenandoah Valley — which is 83 percent white and has a median income of $49,926.
The District does not release unemployment claims data by Zip code, but more than 100,000 people have filed for jobless benefits since mid-March with more than $255.4 million in unemployment insurance paid out to 51,807 residents. More than 17 percent of District residents age 16 and older have sought unemployment benefits.
The Washington Post conducted the analysis using data collected from labor departments in Virginia and Maryland. Data estimates from the Census Bureau were used to determine the number of people age 16 and older in each Zip code.
Read more:
