RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The city of Martinsville had the highest jobless rate in Virginia in September. The Virginia Employment Commission says the city’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 11.1 percent. That’s down from 11.4 percent in August and the same rate as a year ago. The statewide rate for September was 5.2 percent. Nationally, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for August was 5.7 percent. Rates dropped from last year in 339 metropolitan areas, increased in 26 and were flat in seven. Arlington County and the city of Falls Church had Virginia’s lowest jobless rates with 3.7 percent in September. The Danville region had the highest unemployment rate among Virginia’s metropolitan regions at 7.2 percent. The Washington metropolitan region that includes Arlington and Alexandria had the lowest rate of 4.3 percent.
