D.C. Region Job Market Has Look Of a Boom

Local auto dealers have added 700 jobs in the last year, a 2.7 percent rise. One of the reasons is that interest rates are such that at many dealerships, a buyer with a decent credit rating can finance a new car interest-free.

"A low interest rate is the single most important factor," Jack Fitzgerald, president of Bethesda-based Fitzgerald Automotive Group , said of the increased business.

Pohanka Automotive Group, which has Lexus, Acura and other dealerships around the region, has sold 9.8 percent more vehicles through April than during the comparable period last year. As a result, President Geoffrey P. Pohanka said, it has increased its staff 3 percent in that time to almost 1,200 and still needs more workers.

Interest-free loan incentives were introduced to help spur car sales after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. With interest rates going lower and automakers struggling to maintain market share, Pohanka said, they never went away.

Pohanka said he is optimistic that even if rates rise, the company will keep growing. "Rates would go up because of improvement in the economy, and so if the economy is improving, it can only help car sales," he said. "It's not just about incentives."

There is one industry generating large numbers of jobs in Washington that is not such an obvious beneficiary of government stimulus: leisure and hospitality, which added 8,300 jobs in the past year as it recovered from the slump in travel since 9/11.

Courtesy Associates Inc., based in the District, plans conferences and other big events. Business picked up last year as travel rebounded, but to fulfill the demand President Sheila Stampfli hired part-time and contract workers rather than commit to full-timers. Now, she is sufficiently confident that the economy is recovering that she plans to add three full-time workers to her staff of 40 in the next few months.

She has some big projects coming up, organizing a Justice Department conference for 1,500 local law enforcement officials and perhaps a big event for the Homeland Security Department. Government events now account for 60 percent of the firm's business, from as little as 45 percent a few years ago.

"The commercial side of the business is still iffy," Stampfli said. "But government business has been pretty good, at least for now."