The city of Martinsville's jobless rate remained the highest in Virginia in October.

The Virginia Employment Commission says the city's seasonally
unadjusted unemployment rate was 15.2 percent, down from 16.3
percent in both September and last October. The statewide rate for
October was 6.5 percent.

Nationally, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for
September was 8.8 percent. Rates nationwide dropped from a year
earlier in 249 large metropolitan areas, increased in 102 and were
flat in 21.

Northern Virginia's Arlington County had the state's lowest jobless rate with 3.4 percent, followed by Loudoun County at 4.1 percent.

The Danville region had the highest unemployment rate among
Virginia's metropolitan regions at 8.9 percent. The Washington
metropolitan region that includes Arlington and Alexandria had the
lowest jobless rate of 4.5 percent.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)