The city of Martinsville's jobless rate remained the highest in Virginia in September.
The Virginia Employment Commission says the city's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 16.7 percent, down from 19.1 percent in August and 18.2 percent last September.
The statewide rate for September was 6.4 percent.
Nationally, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for September was 8.8 percent. Rates nationwide dropped from a year earlier in 249 large metropolitan areas, increased in 102 and were
flat in 21.
Northern Virginia's Arlington County had the state's lowest jobless rate with 3.8 percent, followed by Loudoun County at 4.4 percent.
The Danville region had the highest unemployment rate among Virginia's metropolitan regions at 9.5 percent. The Washington metropolitan region that includes Arlington and Alexandria had the
lowest jobless rate of 4.9 percent.
