The future of Washington, D.C.’s job market remains uncertain after a positive second fiscal quarter with increased job creation followed by a net loss of jobs in August, according to the District of Columbia’s Department of Employment Services.

Most jobs that had been lost during the recession in D.C. were quickly regained by the end of July. D.C.’s employment rate reached its lowest point in December of 2009 with 12 percent unemployment. The Department of Employment Services estimates that D.C. had a 9.9 percent unemployment rate in the month of July.

MetroMonitor, a project by the Brookings Institute’s Metropolitan Policy Program that tracks America’s economic recovery in metropolitan areas, lists the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area as one of the 20 best-performing cities during the post-recession era. D.C. only had a 1.1 percent loss of employment from the highest point of employment pre-recession to the second quarter of 2010.

In another positive sign of job growth, Monster Employment Index’s number of job postings in the D.C. metropolitan area is 6 percent higher this year than it was last year, according to Executive Gov.

The actual number of employed persons living in the District, 709,900, has gone down by 0.1 percent in the second fiscal quarter of 2010, however.

The fluctuations in the unemployment rate might be due to local government policies, according to the DCist. Statistics point to Mayor Adrian Fenty’s 2010 Summer Youth Employment Program, which employs young adults out of high school, and teaches them skills useful for finding jobs, as the cause for the temporary rise in employment.

After the program ended in August, the number of jobs fell by 26,100, resulting in both a higher unemployment rate and a discrepancy in trends.”