The Washington region remains largely insulated from the jobs cuts rippling across the nation in part because the sectors suffering the worst cutbacks are concentrated elsewhere.

U.S. employers slashed a net 62,000 jobs last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday though the national unemployment rate held steady from May at 5.5 percent.

While local numbers for June are not available yet, the picture is not expected to be quite as gloomy.

“Locally the economy is definitely suffering, but not to the same extent as the national numbers would imply,” said Paul Villella, president and chief executive officer of Reston professional staffing firm Hire Strategy.  In June, there’s a “sense” that there were some downsizings in the metro area, but nothing “of high magnitude,” he added.

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Nationwide, the financial services, construction, and auto manufacturing sectors were particularly hit hard.

Construction jobs were cut by 43,000 positions, manufacturing by 33,000 jobs, and professional and business services by 51,000 jobs. The education and health services sectors gained 29,000 jobs, leisure and hospitality added 24,000 jobs, and government services gained 29,000 jobs.

The Washington region is “not as deeply steeped in those hard-hit industries,” said Villella. The area’s service companies — including hospitality firms — and the government sector are “holding up well, relatively speaking,”  as are local tech firms including emerging companies.

In April, the local area had 28,400 jobs more than it had in April 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These are the most recent numbers available for metropolitan areas.

The D.C. metropolitan area will most likely see flat job growth, possibly a slim increase of up to about 1 percent, said Villella.

“Things are decelerating” in the metro area from April though, said Sandy Paul, national research director for Alexandria-based Delta Associates, which tracks local economic conditions and the real estate market. Paul predicts the job growth will continue to decelerate this year, but said it is “quite certain it will be positive for the year.”

wblake@dcexaminer.com