Arlington employment statistics at a glance
Arlington’s job market is dense, corridor-driven, and unusually intertwined with where people live and work. The numbers below show a county economy with a large employment base, a tight labor market, and clear sector concentration patterns (Profile 2026; Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators).
Quick facts
- 2026 employment estimate: 219,700 jobs (Profile 2026)
- 2026 wage and salary jobs: 212,400 (Profile 2026)
- 2026 self-employed jobs: 7,300 (Profile 2026)
- 2025 average resident civilian labor force: 154,074 (Profile 2026)
- 2025 average unemployment rate: 3.2% (Profile 2026)
- Q4 2025 Arlington unemployment rate: 3.1% (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators)
- Residents living and working in Arlington: 75,235 (Profile 2026)
Table of contents
- The size of Arlington’s job base
- What the labor force and unemployment say
- Where Arlington jobs are concentrated
- How commuting and work-from-home fit in
- Employment support and placement capacity
- What the quarterly indicators add
- Why the corridor pattern matters
The size of Arlington’s job base
Arlington’s 2026 employment estimate is 219,700 jobs, with 212,400 wage and salary jobs and 7,300 self-employed jobs (Profile 2026). That is a large employment footprint for a county of Arlington’s scale, and it matters because the rest of the local labor story has to be read against that base.
A useful way to think about the count is that Arlington is not simply a bedroom community or a single-use office market. The county has a mix of professional, public-sector, hospitality, logistics, real estate, retail, finance, construction, and information jobs that together form a broad employment stack (Profile 2026).
At-a-glance structure
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total at-place jobs | 219,700 | Profile 2026 |
| Wage and salary jobs | 212,400 | Profile 2026 |
| Self-employed jobs | 7,300 | Profile 2026 |
| Total workers age 16 and over | 146,397 | Profile 2026 |
| Workers who work in Arlington | 75,235 | Profile 2026 |
| Workers who work outside Arlington | 27,790 | Profile 2026 |
| Workers who work outside Virginia | 43,372 | Profile 2026 |
The table shows a clear point: Arlington’s labor market is not defined by a single commuting direction. Some residents work locally, some work elsewhere in Virginia, and a sizable number work outside the state entirely (Profile 2026).
What the labor force and unemployment say
The 2025 average resident civilian labor force was 154,074, and the 2025 average unemployment rate was 3.2% (Profile 2026). That unemployment rate is described in the same profile as the highest since 2020, which gives the number extra context even without any additional interpretation (Profile 2026).
The quarterly indicators show a similar pattern of a relatively tight labor market. In Q1 2025, Arlington’s civilian labor force was 154,692 and unemployment was 3.1%. In Q4 2025, the civilian labor force was 152,287 and unemployment remained 3.1% (Q1 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators; Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators).
Compact comparison
| Period | Civilian labor force | Unemployment rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 154,692 | 3.1% | Q1 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| Q4 2025 | 152,287 | 3.1% | Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| 2025 average | 154,074 | 3.2% | Profile 2026 |
Two practical takeaways follow from these figures.
- Arlington’s labor force is large enough to support a substantial number of local jobs, but not so large that every job can be filled locally.
- The unemployment rate staying near 3.1% to 3.2% suggests a relatively constrained labor pool rather than a loose one (Q1 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators; Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators; Profile 2026).
A related stat helps explain the local attachment to work: more than 75,000 residents work most or all of their work week in Arlington (Profile 2026). That is a strong sign of local labor-market circulation, not just outbound commuting.
Where Arlington jobs are concentrated
The job mix by sector gives Arlington its distinctive profile. The largest at-place employment category is professional and technical services at 57,800 jobs, followed by other services at 49,600 and government at 43,100 (Profile 2026).
Sector snapshot
| Sector | At-place jobs | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Professional and technical services | 57,800 | Profile 2026 |
| Other services | 49,600 | Profile 2026 |
| Government | 43,100 | Profile 2026 |
| Hospitality and food services | 14,400 | Profile 2026 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 14,100 | Profile 2026 |
| Real estate and rental/leasing | 12,100 | Profile 2026 |
| Retail trade | 8,400 | Profile 2026 |
| All other jobs | 7,900 | Profile 2026 |
| Finance and insurance | 4,900 | Profile 2026 |
| Construction | 3,900 | Profile 2026 |
| Information | 3,500 | Profile 2026 |
The concentration is notable because the top three sectors alone account for 150,500 jobs (Profile 2026). That means a very large share of Arlington employment sits in knowledge work, public employment, and service functions rather than in a single narrowly defined industrial base.
How commuting and work-from-home fit in
Arlington’s job story is not just about where jobs are located. It is also about how residents move through the county’s labor system.
The 2026 profile says 35% of residents age 16 and over work from home, up from 31% in the 2025 profile (Profile 2026; Arlington County Profile 2025). That is a significant share, and it helps explain why a county can have both a large job base and a large resident labor force without every worker following a traditional daily commute pattern.
A few other figures reinforce the same point:
- 75,235 residents live and work in Arlington (Profile 2026)
- 103,025 workers work in Virginia (Profile 2026)
- 27,790 workers work outside Arlington but still inside the state (Profile 2026)
- 43,372 workers work outside Virginia (Profile 2026)
In other words, Arlington is part local labor market, part regional commuter node, and part remote-work base.
Work-location mix
| Work location | Workers | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Work in Arlington | 75,235 | Profile 2026 |
| Work in Virginia | 103,025 | Profile 2026 |
| Work outside Arlington | 27,790 | Profile 2026 |
| Work outside Virginia | 43,372 | Profile 2026 |
The work-from-home share also matters because it changes how to read office demand, corridor activity, and daytime foot traffic. The statistics do not give a direct causal story, but they do show a county adapting to a more flexible employment pattern while still maintaining a large place-based job market (Profile 2026).
Employment support and placement capacity
Arlington also has a public-facing employment support system that shows up in the FY 2025 performance data. Arlington Employment Center served 1,625 clients, including 869 case-managed clients (FY 2025 Performance Plan).
The same dataset adds more operational detail:
- 904 Arlington employers served (FY 2025 Performance Plan)
- 400 non-Arlington employers served (FY 2025 Performance Plan)
- 131 placements (FY 2025 Performance Plan)
- 15% placement rate (FY 2025 Performance Plan)
- 4.1 months average time to placement, or 124.1 days (FY 2025 Performance Plan)
- 2.9% average unemployment insurance rate (FY 2025 Performance Plan)
- 3 months placement goal (FY 2025 Performance Plan)
These are not the same thing as total county employment, but they do show how a local workforce pipeline is being handled. The placement figures also provide a useful contrast with the much larger county-wide job totals: job access is broad, yet moving a client into a placement still takes time and employer matching capacity (FY 2025 Performance Plan).
Placement trend context
| Fiscal year | Placements | Clients | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY 2022 | 200 | 617 | FY 2025 Performance Plan |
| FY 2023 | 186 | 702 | FY 2025 Performance Plan |
| FY 2024 | 199 | 1,072 | FY 2025 Performance Plan |
| FY 2025 | 131 | 1,625 | FY 2025 Performance Plan |
The FY 2025 placements decreased by 34% versus FY 2024 (FY 2025 Performance Plan). That change is one of the sharper workforce indicators in the dataset, and it suggests that service volume and placement volume can move differently even when the job market remains large.
What the quarterly indicators add
The quarterly indicators supply a separate, more market-facing view of Arlington employment conditions.
In Q4 2025, Arlington had 44,551,732 square feet of office rentable building area, 23.5% office vacancy, and -118,149 square feet of office net absorption (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators). Average office base rent was $40.26 per square foot, which helps frame the market as active but still under vacancy pressure (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators).
A few companion figures from the same quarter matter as well:
- Arlington at-place employees: 182,603 (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators)
- Arlington establishments: 9,594 (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators)
- Arlington weekly gross wages: $2,392 (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators)
- Arlington civilian labor force: 152,287 (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators)
- Arlington unemployment rate: 3.1% (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators)
Q1 to Q4 2025 comparison
| Metric | Q1 2025 | Q4 2025 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office rentable building area | 44,282,089 | 44,551,732 | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| Office vacancy rate | 24.0% | 23.5% | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| Office net absorption | -330,922 | -118,149 | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| Average office base rent | $39.48 | $40.26 | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| At-place employees | 180,856 | 182,603 | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| Establishments | 9,826 | 9,594 | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| Weekly gross wages | $2,235 | $2,392 | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| Civilian labor force | 154,692 | 152,287 | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
| Unemployment rate | 3.1% | 3.1% | Arlington Quarterly Indicators |
The table shows a mixed picture. Office vacancy remains high, but vacancy improved slightly from Q1 to Q4. Rent also increased, while net absorption stayed negative, though less negative by year-end (Arlington Quarterly Indicators).
That is a useful reminder that Arlington employment statistics are not just a count of jobs. They are also a measure of how office inventory, wages, establishments, and labor supply move together over time.
Why the corridor pattern matters
One of the most distinctive facts in the 2026 profile is that 79% of all office jobs are located in Arlington planning corridors (Profile 2026). That makes the corridor structure central to understanding where jobs sit and how employment is spatially organized.
The four corridor totals are:
- Rosslyn-Ballston corridor: 87,600 jobs (Profile 2026)
- Richmond Highway corridor: 51,000 jobs (Profile 2026)
- Columbia Pike corridor: 8,600 jobs (Profile 2026)
- Langston Boulevard corridor: 4,000 jobs (Profile 2026)
Corridor mix table
| Corridor | Total jobs | Office share | Retail share | Other share | Industrial share | Self-employed share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rosslyn-Ballston | 87,600 | 85.3% | 9.2% | 4.0% | 0.3% | 1.2% | Profile 2026 |
| Richmond Highway | 51,000 | 80.7% | 16.5% | 0.4% | 1.7% | 0.7% | Profile 2026 |
| Columbia Pike | 8,600 | 38.3% | 25.7% | 16.2% | 0.8% | 19.0% | Profile 2026 |
| Langston Boulevard | 4,000 | 13.1% | 55.1% | 21.0% | 4.4% | 6.3% | Profile 2026 |
The corridor shares show very different local job personalities.
Rosslyn-Ballston is overwhelmingly office-oriented at 85.3% office share, while Richmond Highway is also office-heavy but with a larger retail component at 16.5% (Profile 2026). Columbia Pike is more mixed, and Langston Boulevard stands out for retail, with 55.1% retail share (Profile 2026).
That makes Arlington employment statistics especially useful for planners, employers, and readers who want more than a countywide total. The corridor numbers show that local employment is clustered, specialized, and spatially uneven.
Reading the county’s employment profile together
A full reading of the numbers points in the same direction:
- Arlington has a large total employment base for its size, with 219,700 jobs in 2026 (Profile 2026)
- Its labor force is large but still constrained relative to the job base, with unemployment near 3.1% to 3.2% in 2025 (Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators; Profile 2026)
- Its economy is concentrated in professional services, government, and other services (Profile 2026)
- A meaningful share of residents work from home, while many still work locally or elsewhere in the region (Profile 2026; Arlington County Profile 2025)
- Corridor geography shapes where office, retail, and mixed-use jobs cluster (Profile 2026)
- Workforce support data show the county also manages job placement and employer matching as a practical service layer, not just a statistical one (FY 2025 Performance Plan)
For anyone tracking Arlington employment statistics over time, the important pattern is not a single headline number. It is the combination of job volume, labor-force tightness, corridor concentration, office vacancy, and workforce support capacity that makes the county’s employment picture distinct (Profile 2026; Q4 2025 Arlington Quarterly Indicators; FY 2025 Performance Plan).