For the fourth consecutive month, unemployment rates in all 372 metropolitan areas were higher on a year-over-year basis, according to Wednesday's BLS Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment Summary for April.
Only one metro area, El Centro, CA, reported a jobless rate over 15% in April '08, compared to the 13 identified in April '09. Six metro areas (including three in California) dropped below the 15% level in April from last month's report, while one area, Longview, WA, was added to that list.
Source: WANTED Analytics
However, the magnitude of the increase in unemployment rates does not engender optimism for a reduction in unemployment in 2009: 80 of the 372 metro areas reported an increase of at least 5 percentage points over April '08. The largest jobless rate increase, unfortunately, again belongs to Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana. Residents there saw an increase in their unemployment rate of 12.7%.
WANTED's hiring demand data for those 13 metro areas with at least 15% unemployment as of the week of May 24, 2009 shows a decline in online job ads of 33% from the same period in 2008.
All Entries