Private sector job losses linked to federal reductions and economic uncertainty are a top concern for City of Alexandria and its regional counterparts, according to a presentation given to City Council Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The presentation<\/a>, based on the DMV Monitor project<\/a> created in partnership with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, looked at federal job losses under President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, its ripple effect on the private sector and other regional economic trends.<\/p>\n Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at the Brookings Institute who studies regional economies, briefed City Council on the regional economic trends and how the city is faring compared to its regional counterparts.<\/p>\n \u201cJob growth in major metro areas in the country is still positive, but our region lost jobs last year,\u201d Hadden Loh told City Council. \u201cWe lost more jobs than any other major metro area in the United States, and the City of Alexandria was right there with the region.\u201d<\/p>\n The regional economy is seeing private sector job losses tied to federal contract and grant cuts and an uncertain economic environment. According to the Brookings Institute data, Alexandria\u2019s private jobs are down 1.1% since January 2025, and federal obligations and contracts are down 16% from November 2024 to 2025.<\/p>\n While Hadden Loh said the region is still adding private jobs in certain subsectors, others have taken a hit.<\/p>\n \u201cThose subsectors are very present in the City of Alexandria, and so the City of Alexandria lost more private sector jobs than almost any other jurisdiction in the whole DMV last year, and as a result, unemployment has surged,\u201d Hadden Loh said.<\/p>\n Federal job losses have disproportionately impacted the D.C. region but not been concentrated in Alexandria. The Brookings Institute data shows federal jobs are down 4.8% in Alexandria since January 2025, compared to 13.7% for the region.<\/p>\n Hadden Loh said the city actually gained federal jobs in some quarters. In 2025, the city was chosen for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s planned headquarters relocation<\/a> and got to retain the National Science Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alexandria\u2019s unemployment rate of 3.8%<\/a> as of November 2025 was up from 2.5% from the prior year, according to state data. Other regional data showed a 29 percent decline in internships from December 2024 to 2025, a big hit to young people looking for early career opportunities.<\/p>\n Hadden Loh said the increased unemployment in the region and has been disproportionately higher among people of color than white residents.<\/p>\n \u201cThe concern for me is that when inequality gets worse, it\u2019s bad for people, but it\u2019s also it\u2019s bad for the economy,\u201d Hadden Loh said. \u201cIt creates an overall environment of uncertainty in our region. That has to be something that\u2019s on the mind of any employer that might consider locating or growing within our region, and so what we\u2019re seeing is more cautious hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n That cautious hiring approach can also be reflected in venture capital volume, which is down by 25.1% in the region from January 2025 to 2026. Hadden Loh said the decrease came after the region had one of its best startup years in 2024.<\/p>\n Councilmember Canek Aguirre pointed to City Council\u2019s recent focus on incubators as a strategy to increase investments from high-potential startups. The Alexandria Economic Development Partnership is launching a startup accelerator program<\/a>, one of the strategies in City Council\u2019s\u00a0recently adopted ALX Forward<\/a> economic roadmap.<\/p>\n \u201cThe raw materials are there. We just need to draw in some of the capital,\u201d Aguirre said. \u201cWe actually have an [request for proposals] out right now, so hopefully we can get some of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Hadden Loh called for regional collaboration on workforce recruiting, which the Council of Governments is doing with its Talent Capital AI<\/a> initiative to coach job applicants and match them with jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we think about the impacts on young people, for example, this is an area in which I think workforce development policy can make a really big difference, and we need to work with employers in order to try to address this really rapidly emerging trend that we\u2019re seeing in the data,\u201d Hadden Loh said.<\/p>\n Despite the economic uncertainty caused by federal reductions,\u00a0Hadden Loh said a panel of five regional economic developers in December identified housing costs, not the Trump administration, as the top barrier to the region\u2019s economic growth.<\/p>\n Alexandria has taken steps to boost affordable units after losing 90% of its affordable housing<\/a> stock between 2000 and 2017.\u00a0In 2013, Alexandria set its own Housing Master Plan goal to create 2,000 affordable units by 2025. By June 2024, the city exceeded that goal, with more than 3,500 affordable units in development, under construction, and completed. The city has drafted a new Housing 2040<\/a> plan to set future housing goals and strategies.<\/p>\n \u201cI think [the] City of Alexandria [is] way out front relative to most other jurisdictions in addressing that,\u201d Hadden Loh said. \u201cAnd so what we need is for more jurisdictions in the region to get on board with that, and we will all benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n Brookings Institute data suggested for-sale residential listings were up 46% and median listing prices were down 25% in Alexandria from December 2024 to 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cThe actual sale prices of homes have fallen more in the City of Alexandria than any other jurisdiction the DMV, and that we see a negative price trend in homes across the region in every jurisdiction except way out there in Fauquier [County],\u201d Hadden Loh said.<\/p>\n Mayor Alyia Gaskins said the data can help City Council understand priorities it should invest in. She noted about 20 public speakers at Monday\u2019s budget public hearing brought up affordability as a concern.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we set forth our council priorities, we said that we want our legacy to be building our economic strength, and we want the other piece of our legacy to be eliminating community disparities,\u201d Gaskins said. \u201cWhen I saw [the Brookings Institute] data, I was like, \u2018this is exactly what we need to understand so we can figure out where the places we can be most strategic in intervening [are].’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Private sector job losses linked to federal reductions and economic uncertainty are a top concern for City of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[234874,28,234875,101,14261,174301,21258,3],"class_list":["post-520146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alyia-gaskins","tag-business","tag-canek-aguirre","tag-economy","tag-federal-workers","tag-hud","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}