Unemployment rates in August fell in D.C., Maryland and Virginia from the previous month, and almost all states reported lower unemployment rates than a year ago, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Thirteen other states also continued to post month-to-month job gains.

In August, Maryland’s unemployment rate fell to 5.9% from 6.0% in July. A year earlier it was 8.6%. Virginia’s August unemployment rate was 4.0%, down from 4.2% in July and 7.0% in August 2020.

D.C.’s August unemployment rate was 6.5%, down from July’s 6.7%, and down from 8.8% a year earlier.

All unemployment rates are reported on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Maryland has posted the strongest job recovery, ending August with 127,000 more jobs than it had a year earlier. That’s a job growth rate of 5.0%.

Virginia has regained 82,500 jobs, for an annual job growth rate of 2.2%. The District had 15,700 more jobs than it did a year earlier, for a job growth rate of 2.1%.

Nevada had the highest state unemployment rate in August at 7.7%, but the state had about double that rate in August 2020. Nebraska, at just 2.2%, posted the lowest unemployment rate in August.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics posts monthly state unemployment rates and payroll changes online.