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Unemployment across Northern Virginia jumped 41% in November 2025 compared with the same month a year earlier, newly released federal data shows.

The Virginia portion of the Washington metropolitan area had 65,357 residents counted as unemployed, up from 46,381 in November 2024. The region’s unemployment rate rose from 2.6% to 3.7% during that period.

Joblessness increased even faster across the broader Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The number of residents looking for work climbed 47.7%, from 107,504 in November 2024 to 158,736 in November 2025. The metro area’s unemployment rate rose from 3% to 4.5%.

Virginia also recorded a substantial statewide increase. The Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement reported 173,136 unemployed residents in November, 31.2% more than the 131,957 counted a year earlier.

The state’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 2.9% to 3.9%.

Nationally, November unemployment rates were higher than a year earlier in 259 metropolitan areas, lower in 100 and unchanged in 28. The country’s non-seasonally adjusted rate rose from 4% to 4.3%.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, had the nation’s lowest metropolitan unemployment rate at 2%, while El Centro, California, recorded the highest at 20%.

Among the 56 metropolitan areas with populations exceeding 1 million, Honolulu had the lowest rate at 2.3%. Fresno had the highest at 8.1%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the November figures on Jan. 16 after a seven-week federal government shutdown delayed publication. October figures were not collected because of the shutdown.

Virginia officials had not yet posted locality-level data as of press time. All November 2025 figures remain preliminary and may be revised.