WASHINGTON — The Department of Labor will report on August unemployment rates Friday, but ahead of that, it is out with jobless rates for the nation’s biggest cities, and unemployment held steady in the D.C. region.

The July jobless rate in the D.C. area was a respectable 3.9 percent, below the national average of 4.3 percent. Baltimore’s unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in July. Both were unchanged from June’s reading.

Denver claims the lowest big city unemployment rate in the nation at just 2.4 percent in July. Cleveland retains the unenvious title of the highest unemployment rate among metros with a population of more than 1 million people, at 6.6 percent in July.

Among all metro areas, Bismarck, North Dakota, followed closely by Fargo, North Dakota, have the lowest unemployment rates, at just 1.9 percent and 2.0 percent respectively in July.

The highest unemployment rates in the nation remain in El Centro, California, and Yuma, Arizona, at 24.2 percent and 23.8 percent respectively in July.