We already knew from experts that Arlington would likely dodge a bullet, relatively speaking, during the next recession. But it’s good to hear some reinforcement of that on a day that the stock market is down nearly 5%.
At one point today, amid coronavirus fears and plummeting oil prices, the Dow was down more than 2,000 points. Trading was halted for 15 minutes due to the massive drop.
Trading in New York resumes, Dow Jones Industrial Average session losses increase to more than 2,000 points https://t.co/2JarXSDy5b pic.twitter.com/FEWli8YP4E
— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) March 9, 2020
On the bright side, Arlington — thanks to its large federal and military employment base, and professional services sector that’s more able to work from home — is better positioned than most to weather a pandemic-induced recession.
None of those factors went into the new rankings from the website SmartAsset, however.
SmartAsset looked at factors related to employment, housing, and social assistance in ranking Arlington County No. 15 on its list, behind #1 Frisco, Texas, among other mostly smaller cities. Our neighbor to the south, Alexandria was No. 23, on the list.
“The Great Recession wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy, with unemployment peaking at 10.1% in October 2009,” a SmartAsset spokesperson said, in introducing the rankings. “Not all cities, however, were hit equally by this economic crisis and some are better equipped to weather the next downturn.”