Washington region unemployment rate rose to 6.2 percent in September from 6.0 percent in August

The unemployment rate in the Washington region rose to 6.2 percent in September from 6.0 percent the month before, according to government data released Wednesday, even as area recruiters report that for the first time this year they're seeing growing interest in hiring by some employers.

As it has all year, the decline in jobs occurred in construction, retail, manufacturing and information technology -- wiping out hiring gains in the federal government, professional services, health and education. From September 2008 to September 2009, the region lost about 37,000 jobs. That is a slight improvement from the August-to-August loss of 40,000 jobs.

Metropolitan Washington's not-seasonally adjusted rate of 6.2 percent in September marks a sharp increase from a year earlier when it was just 3.9 percent. The region is still below the average national unemployment level, which was a not-seasonally adjusted 9.5 percent last month. September's uptick in the region's jobless rate came after the percentage fell for two consecutive months, a fluctuation that experts who study the area's economy said is more in line with the region's employment trends.

"The monthly numbers are volatile, the general trend is that unemployment is going up," said James Diffley, group managing director of regional services at IHS Global Insight, who follows jobless data from the Washington region. Other analysts have said that they thought the fall in the jobless rate in July and August was not a true picture of the actual situation because they suspect that a number of unemployed people had simply given up their job search and dropped out of the labor force.

Washington's metropolitan area "has one of the lowest rates in the country," Diffley said, though "all signs point" to an economic recovery in which unemployment rates will likely rise before they fall.

Several recruiters in the Washington region said they saw a small surge in hiring in September, for the first time this year, with employers actively seeking candidates to fill a range of permanent full-time as well as temporary positions. While the federal government is beginning to ramp up to hire as many as 120,000 workers in the region over the next several years, recruiters say they are seeing increased activity among private-sector employers.

"From the end of August to the end of October, our overall [requests for candidates] for open positions is up 8 percent," said Paul Villella, president and chief executive of HireStrategy, a recruitment firm in Reston.

Federal contracting firms, wireless phone companies and a private higher-education company are among the employers that have hired in recent weeks, said Villella, who declined to name them. "Their business revenue has picked up, and there's a lot of anticipation [that demand will increase] next year."

The Washington-based Lee Hecht Harrison firm contracts with employers who are cutting staff, helping laid-off workers find new jobs. Cynthia Ward, a vice president at the firm, said that though job cuts have not decreased, the dislocated employees are in more demand for new work.

She said one telling indicator of a possible increase in hiring is that she is "starting to see more openings for recruiters. Earlier this year, I saw none." Indeed, late last year, human resources experts said many recruiters were being laid off.

Marcus Washington, an account manager at District-based temp firm Ajilon Professional Staffing, said hiring has accelerated across a variety of sectors. "We're seeing robust hiring in accounting, for HR managers and directors, we're seeing some in IT [information technology] as well as in health care," Washington said. "We started to loosen up in the middle of September."

The El Centro, Calif., metropolitan area had the highest unemployment rate in September -- 30.1 percent. The Bismarck, N.D., region recorded the lowest rate, 2.9 percent.