By Juli Morris on September 3, 2009 in Labor Market Dynamics.

For the seventh consecutive month, unemployment rates in all 372 metropolitan areas were higher on a year-over-year basis, according to this week's BLS Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment Summary for July.

Only two metro areas, El Centro, CA, and Yuma, AZ, reported a jobless rate over 15% in July '08, compared to the 19 identified in July '09. Two metro areas  dropped below the 15% level since last month's report (Hanford-Corcoran, CA; and Kokomo, IN) while three areas were added to the list (Visalia-Porterville, CA; Rockford, IL; and Sebastian-Vero Beach, Florida).

The magnitude of the increases in metro area unemployment rates is still troubling, but seems to be leveling off:  56 of the 372 metro areas reported an increase of at least 5 percentage points over the prior year, compared with 86 metro areas cited in the June data. The largest jobless rate increases belong to Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Michigan, followed by Bend, Oregon, and Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana. Detroit-area residents saw an increase in their unemployment rate of 8.4 percentage points.

WANTED's Hiring Demand data for those 19 metro areas with at least 15% unemployment for July 2009 shows a decline in available online job ads of 17% from July 2008. In better news, Hiring Demand in July for these metro areas showed an increase of 15% over June 2009.

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