While unemployment is decreasing in the rest of the nation, the Washington Post notes that unemployment in D.C. is on the rise. Overall unemployment in the District is up to 8.2%. Across the river in Virginia, it's about 3%. In a round about way, they try to say that the poor are hardest hit.

Washington Mayor Anthony Williams and several D.C. Council members have "proposed changes to laws meant to encourage employment of D.C. residents, especially those in poor neighborhoods."

While unemployment has risen in each of the District's eight wards in the past year, a review of the figures shows that Washington's poorest residents are worse off. Ward 8, east of the Anacostia River, had the highest rate at 15.4 percent in February, according to the D.C. Department of Employment Services, up from 12.5 percent a year earlier. . .

In Ward 7, also east of the river but which has more middle-class residents, unemployment was 9.5 percent, up from 7.7 percent a year earlier.

In affluent Ward 3, in Northwest, unemployment rose to 2.8 percent from 2.2 percent a year earlier.

So poor people are more likely to be unemployed, while the "affluent" tend to have jobs. Funny how that works.