Washington  - US unemployment is heading toward double digits. From Manhattan to Maui, belts are being tightened, and many of the 50 US states are facing unprecedented budget crises.

The worst US economic downturn in 80 years has penetrated every corner of the world's largest economy - with one exception.

In the US capital, Washington, and its suburbs in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland, bustling restaurants are a sign that the federal city is not like the rest of the country. The Wall Street Journal even described Washington recently as a boomtown.

The unemployment rate in greater Washington, which has a population of 6.3 million people, was 6.2 per cent in May, even as the national average hit a more than 25-year high of 9.4 per cent.

The rosy times are attributable to the fact that almost one-quarter of the metropolitan workforce is employed by the local, state or federal governments. The public sector is the backbone of the local economy and a harbour of stability in stormy times.

"Government is a good customer," said Angie Lawry, marketing director at the Greater Washington Initiative, a regional business development group. "It has got money, and it does always spend it."

But the private sector in and around the capital is unique, too.

"The federal government is our foundation, but it's a mutually reinforcing set of factors," said Matt Erskine, director of the Greater Washington Initiative. "Smart people are attracted to other smart people."

More than half of the area's people over age 25 have a college degree, and more than 50 universities and specialized educational establishments are based in and around Washington.

Erskine sees new environmental technologies as an area for future growth. A recent study by the US Conference of Mayors estimated that more than 190,000 "green" jobs could be created in the region in the next 30 years.

"We have the workforce, the government research and the decision makers," Erskine said.

But he pointed out that the Washington area has lost jobs just like the rest of the country, especially in retail and construction, and objects to the boomtown description.

"That's probably a little bit much," Erskine said. "We're not immune."

But the capital region - in which the Greater Washington Initiative includes Washington, which is a federal area known as the District of Columbia and not part of any state, plus adjoining parts of Maryland and Virginia - has fared comparatively well in the recession that began in December 2007. That development continues a trend established in previous economic downturns.

"We have had stable growth over the last 18 years, and we created more new jobs in the last decade than any other region in the US," Erskine said.

A majority of corporate leaders in and around Washington expected an upturn in the second half of this year, according to a Greater Washington Initiative survey. Sixty-eight per cent said they were convinced that it's easier to make money in Washington and its environs than in the rest of the country.

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, himself a resident of nearby Alexandria, which is within sight of Washington across the Potomac River, is a former congressional staffer who made a fortune in the mobile phone franchise business.

"It helps," he said, "to be where the money is." (dpa)