On Thursday the County Council Development Committee took a deep look at the County by the numbers. Starting with the unemployment rate which rose from 2.6% in the first quarter of 2024 to 3.1% in the first quarter of this year. That’s according to the Committee’s most recent briefing.
However, that’s still 1.1 percentage points below the U. S. national average, according to representatives from the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) and the Montgomery County Planning Department.
Officials briefed Committee members on the county’s economic indicators including the labor force, unemployment rates and employment by major industry sectors. They also gave an overview of real estate and development and venture capital investments.
Office vacancy rate rose from 17.9% in the first quarter of 2024 to 18.8% in the first quarter of this year. Retail vacancies during the first quarter of this year were .4 percentage points higher than the previous year.
“We kind of fell a little bit,” said Westley Sturhan, research analyst with MCEDC, referring to office vacancy rates.
The median home price rose from $590,000 to $610,000. The average sale price of for-sale housing was $740,444, up from $703,713.
Multi-family rent rose by 1.8% to $2,131, with the vacancy rate at 7.0%.
There were nearly 2800 initial claims for unemployment during the first three months of this year, which was about 1,000 more than the same time last year.
Councilmember Natali Fani-González pointed out County residents working in Washington, D.C. file unemployment claims in D.C. So the number of unemployment claims from county residents may be higher.
Sturhan explained the data presented covered January through March of this year. Therefore it did not show all the effects of the Trump Administration federal layoffs.
Residential multifamily building permits were “incredibly low,” Sturhan said. “They have just not been happening.”
Some of the discussion revolved around the need to diversify business here beyond life sciences. They talked about seeking manufacturing industries.
Officials noted there are 2,500 people employed in the satellite and advance communications industry. And X-Energy, a nuclear energy company in Rockville, has been expanding.
