Kottmeier: Local Employment Data Shows Private Sector Has Grit

WASHINGTON, DC-The local area saw a year-over-year growth of 9,400 office-related jobs, based on the latest unemployment figures released by the Labor Department. This is significant for the region for several reasons, Jeffrey Kottmeier, VP and director of research with Cassidy Turley, tells GlobeSt.com. “Many of these jobs were created outside of the federal sector,” he explains. That means that the DC area, long a believer that the federal government is its chief growth driver, has a reasonable shot at maintaining its economic foothold even as the federal government scales back.

“There was robust job growth for the DC region in the first quarter,” Kottmeier says. “But then the federal government slowed down its hiring. The private sector, though, has continued to be average in its hires.” Comparing federal hiring this year to last can be tricky, as in 2010 government hiring was inflated by the Census, he added. “Still, I think it is safe to say that the private sector can at least partially fill the gap created by the federal government.”

That is, of course, assuming the private sector doesn’t suffer any more setbacks. The recent figures by the Labor Department, for instance, show that financial services employment fell, Sam Chandan, president & chief economist at Chandan Economics, tells GlobeSt.com. “That trend is probably going to continue as UBS and other institutions cut back in Q4,” Chandan says.