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The last time the Board of Trade released consumer confidence numbers for the greater Washington region, via Delta Associates, we learned that D.C. residents were more bullish about the future than their suburban brethren by a substantial measure. In its latest survey, conducted in early July and released today, that gap only widened: While Northern Virginia and Suburban Maryland took a tumble, D.C.’s confidence only weakened by one percentage point.
That’s in stark contrast to the region’s unemployment numbers. For June, D.C. stood at a whopping 10.4 percent—-up 0.7 percent from December 2010—-while Maryland and Virginia came in at seven and six percent respectively. Those numbers are for the whole states, of course, but the greater Washington pieces of Maryland and Virginia typically have even lower unemployment than their statewide averages.
Unemployment and consumer confidence are supposed to be inversely correlated. What gives here? I’ll ask around and let you know what I find out.