Unemployment: The Worst-Hit Cities (MAP)

Unemployment rates climbed in all U.S. metropolitan areas from last May to this May, the government announced on Tuesday.

Of metro areas with a population of more than a million, Detroit wins the sad prize of highest unemployment, with a rate of 14.9 percent. The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that El Centro, Calif. had the highest overall rate: 26.8 percent. Fifteen areas reported jobless rates of at least 15 percent: Seven in California, three in Michigan, and two in Indiana.

Oklahoma City and San Antonio, Texas, were the largest metro areas with the lowest rates, with 5.7 and 5.8 percent unemployment, respectively. The lowest rate of all cities was in Bismarck, N.D., at 3.5 percent, with Iowa City right behind at 3.7 and Ames, Iowa at 3.8 percent.

Overall, 148 metro areas reported unemployment above the national rate of 9.1 percent, and 215 areas reported lower rates.

The Brookings Institution released a study on June 17 that found that found that the recession is hurting U.S. cities at "radically varying levels." Unemployment was one of the key factors in Brookings' "MetroMonitor" report, which found that Detroit was the weakest-performing city in the country, economically speaking. San Antonio and Oklahoma City came out on top.

Here's a map from the Labor Department. Areas whose unemployment rates are higher than the national average are in dark gray; areas with lower unemployment are in light gray.

When will the job market begin to pick up in your area? VOTE below:

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Click here for a PDF of the BLS report.

Comments

[ramal]

Notice that the lowest unemployment is in places that no one would want to live.

[gemzenith]

Actually I live in FL ans it sucks I want to get out A.S.A.P.I'­ll take the snow and back roads and be a bumpkin,fo­rever,happ­ily.

[BarakCarpathia]

I live in the backwoods of southern mississippi (dang its hot here and we need rain)
I just put a bunch of corn away and peas, plus i have a load of tomatoes and okra.
However, Milk is still 250 a gallon, gas 250, energy 12 cent/kwh (it should go up when they pass that energy tax) You can get a nice house for 70-80.
I'm gonna start me a get rich quick pyramid scheme.
I was a SR VP once on 175k salary with bonus potential, but I was never home, I had a Beemer, Wife, Kids, girlfriend, drinking problem, and a heart attack.
Let the young people have the corporate world. They are dumb enough to trade everything.

[Ohming]

Because they are conservative areas.....

[The Meek]

They are conservative areas because the smart people moved out for work or were forced out by being shunned. Perhaps it's time for the smart people to move back.

[dan-o]

I lived in North Dakota and you would be surprised how liberal the state's residents can be. The eastern side of the state has a couple of big universities and are very liberal. Th two US Senators are dems and damn good ones too.

[frozenporklander]

Hey, on your poll, you forgot the choice "Never" ... That'd be my choice, because it ain't never coming back. Until we start making things again in this country, we're hosed!

[The Meek]

That's about right, The Government could help a little, but the Masters of the Universe are only interested in their own bottom line. Or as they say here in Ireland, "Their head has disappeared up their arse.".

Advice for my fellow meek ones: Develop your barter system network and never trust extravert's.

[MadHeart]

NC is so screwed. Tens of thousands of jobs outsourced, teachers and health workers among them. People trying to retrain, but many are older, funds are being cut, and the jobs for which they are training may not even be there. Service jobs are even dwindling, as more people become unemployed and people can't afford eating out, haircuts, even, those sorts of "service jobs." Strip malls are standing empty, even shopping malls are looking for tenants. Banks are still building hi-rises--they have the money. Ordinary people just do not have much money, unemployment for many, if they're lucky.

And that's the "trickle up" effect of unemployment.

[MadHeart]

I meant, "teachers and health workers unemployed". Woopsie. And construction companies (where both my sons work) are paying 1980s wages.

I lay all of the blame for this mess on corporations, cheap labor advocates and the do-nothing for the workers Bush regime.

[DuganS1]

Construction companies pay good wages, unless you're talking about residential construction companies that often employ day-laborers. And since when have companies not looked for the best labor at the best rates? Never as far I've ever heard. And what exactly could the "Bush regime" have done about wage rates in the construction industry, which were already relatively high? If there was an anti-immigration bill that would have cut off the day labor market for residential construction companies, it would just have resulted in a massive shortage of capable construction workers during the housing boom. Not a good thing for the economy, aye?

[BarakCarpathia]

Democrat areas

[magicmary]

Area's where lots of jobs were outsourced. In the 90's in Portland, OR, I was in the garment industry and watched all kinds of jobs - not just manufacturing but product development and engineering - get outsourced from all the old venerable manufacturers. Sad.

[mitchieone]

The results of NAFTA.

[DuganS1]

Jobs in the apparel and textile industries have gone increasingly abroad since the 60s. Warren Buffett shut down the last of the Berkshire Mills in the early 70s, but he was one of the last owners to do so. Employment in these industries came close to peaking in the US as early as 1943, when so many military uniforms were produced. It stabilized in the 50 and early 60s then went up again and peaked during Vietnam, again for military uniforms and other military items. Employment then began steadily trending down after Vietnam to now. NAFTA had nothing to do with it. Most of that production went to Asia. You were lucky to still have a job in that industry as late as the 90s.

http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/data.exe/blsce/ces3231300001

http://condohighlandpark.com/em-cgi/data.exe/blsee/eeu32230003

http://sub0.economagician.com/em-cgi/data.exe/blsee/ees32230002

[The Meek]

That big white area in the middle of the country has been depopulated because people had to move out because there weren't any jobs period. They moved to dark colored areas in search of work. They are internal economic refugees, and things are tough for them and are going to get tougher

[DuganS1]

There has been no "depopulation", although there have been millions over the past several decades who have moved from the Midwest and Midlands, for example, to the southeast and southwest -- where it's warmer...

[Ohming]

Actually, most of the blank white area is agriculturally based and consercative. They tend to live within thier means and plan for the future.

[pipetoe]

You guys shouldn't care...Jus­t smoke your pot and have fun.

[deeppeace]

Statewide, we're looking at 9 percent in WA. My county just got all excited because its rate dropped from 15.1 in April to 14.2 percent in May.

[themodernleader]

Obama and Hoover are strikingly similiar. They both were persuaded that the banking industry was the heart of the problem and solution. Similarly, Obama is failing as the economy continues to plummet and unemployment reaches depression levels. Their policies have and will grow fear, withdrawal, aggression and dangerous movements calling for revolution and simple solutions.
The actual unemployment has been masked by dishonest accounting since the Reagan Administration. If the actual number of unemployed were counted we would find our economic plight compounded and our ability to control events much less than we now presume.
I am amazed that the Democratic Party has become so obliged to financial interests that the party officiers are compliant and silent as the double-cross of the middle American accelerates and our sinews of manufacturing, technological strength continue to hemorrhage. We are a broken governance system.

[FightTheLies]

You analogy is almost correct. Strike Obama from your comments and replace it with Bush. Both were Republicans, both slammed us into a recession, and now you blame the Democrats for your party's mess ups. The real problem is with capitalism the way it stands today. It's a system of privatized profits and socialized losses. Bush is the president that started the payments to the banks without any sort of oversight.

You want simple solutions? Join a movement to 'buy American'. I understand that not all things can be made American, but make a stand where it really counts. The corporations you so want to give tax breaks to are sending your jobs overseas where it is cheaper. Quit with the phony protests about taxes when you just got handed a tax break. Fight the greed of the businessmen and women who only want to make their money regardless of who it hurts.

The problem with allowing a business to grow so large it can't fail is it will hurt the public no matter what you do. If you don't hand over the money to keep them afloat, millions of jobs are lost creating a burden on everyone else. So don't blame governance, blame the corporations.

[rocketman69]

Strike corporations from YOUR comments and replace it with government. Allowing the GOVERNMENT to grow so large is the real problem. Every time something bad happens, new government agencies are created to "not allow that to happen again". And guess what happens? More oversight agencies and overseer's to not let the other agencies to fail again.

[HamletsMill]

"Obama and Hoover are strikingly similar. They both were persuaded that the banking industry was the heart of the problem and solution. Similarly, Obama is failing as the economy continues to plummet and unemployment reaches depression levels."

Yep. So far this is the case. Can President Obama (a man I greatly admire) wake up before it is too late? For such a talented man, it is an unbearable tragedy if he does not grasp how the interests of Wall Street have shamelessly played him like a fiddle so far.

[therealredstateblues]

exactly - Obama is going about it bass ackawards - propping up the very finacial institutions that brought down the economy and ignoring our wealth producing, prosperity sharing, innovation crating manfacturing sector, I might even go so far as to say he is complicit in dismantling it

economists of every political stripe have been lining up to say we are not going to be able to borrow and spend our way out, we must produce our way out

[BabblingBrooks]

Speaking of out of work, the car dealerships apparently were NOT closed for political reasons. Good news!

" Of the nearly 3,000 Chrysler dealerships in the country, we successfully matched the owners of 420 to political contributions, using data from the 2008 election cycle. From this list, we considered a dealership to be Republican-owned if the majority owner gave more money to Republicans than to Democrats. Of the 300 Republican-owned dealerships we identified, 77 were on the list of closed dealerships. A dealership was determined to be Democratic-owned if the primary owner gave more money to Democrats than Republicans. There were many fewer, only 120, of these. Car dealers, it turns out, tend to be Republicans.

For the Democrat-owned dealerships, 31 out of 120 were shut down. Comparing those numbers, we found that 25.7% of Republican dealerships were schedule to be closed while 25.8% of Democrat ones were.

That difference is utterly insignificant. Thus, the data indicate that the Chrysler closings did not systematically favor Democrats.­"
--Kevin Hassett, American Enterprise Institute

[decolonizeme]

Hawaii's tourist industry is at its lowest level since 1946, and, really, there's not much else going on economically here.

Unfortunately for us, we won't get better until everyone else gets better and starts travelling again.

[BarakCarpathia]

Are you in Honolulu?
If so, visit my friends at Sushi Sasabune. Sit at the sushi bar and order the "trust me."

[decolonizeme]

I would but I ran out of money months ago.

You know, the economy.

[AZterritory]

Phoenix area is in the toilet and swirling down for the last time . . . 7000 teachers riffed statewide, university and government employees laid off at city, county, state levels, businesses closing--why there isn't a dark spot on there I haven't a clue.

[mag68]

I'm pretty comfy up here in Santa Barbara county....­..

[Mildmannered]

I guess that we Californians are really a sucker for the mortgage scams.

[suec03]

Those mortgage companies called me over and over and I declined their refinance offers every time. I kept my good FHA mortgage, but I guess several of my neighbors fell for easy refinancing. Now the value of homes in my neighborhood have dropped until all these foreclosures get sold (but then another wave of foreclosures will follow as other people with ARM's leave their initial five years of low rates and move into the free-wheeling adjustable years of their ARM's).

[HamletsMill]

U.S. Banks Halt New Mortgage Lending

"The truth is that the U.S. financial crime syndicate appears to be quite content to allow foreclosures to continue to mount, while it secretly accumulates millions of pieces of properties for next-to-nothing. Thus, the game-plan is to pretend to lend to Americans – in order to delay any meaningful assistance, and maximize the number of Americans who lose their homes."

http://seekingalpha.com/article/146141-u-s-banks-halt-new-mortgage-lending

Everything is out of control. Everything is in free fall. No one is flying the plane. Please president Obama, get new economic advisers.

[BarakCarpathia]

That's one way to look at it.
How about this:
You all enjoyed the wave of values, your house was appreciating 30% per year, the bubble was good. Everyone jumped out but a few people left holding the bag.
Wait till you see the renters that will be your new neighbors.

[fcsakes]

Or maybe there are just more Californians :)

[curiousasheck]

Obama needs to take a hint to get investment capital and liquidity back into the U.S. System.

So here it is . . . . .

Vladimir Putin ordered the heads of Russia's top banks "not to plan any summer holidays" until the financing of the real economy is sorted out.

Putin on Monday gave state-controlled banks a tight three-month deadline to hand out at least $13 billion in loans to major companies — and he told the bank’s CEOs that they couldn’t take vacations until they had followed orders.

Hint hint

[unbozo]

They left one option out in the poll - when hell freezes over.

[swagongoda]

Let them filabuster for apprx 1 hour.
Then call for a vote to stop the lying sons-a---------.
We have 60 Senators!
Then a straight up or down vote (sound familiar?)

[bayside]

We may have sixty dems but we have the blue dogs in that mix and they vote republican­..Until we get them out we will struggle for every little bit ..

[thegreatgiginthesky]

8 years of cutting taxes and cutting spending on infrastructure along with rampant outsourcing in order to create a "service economy" has yielded the current mess. Yet the republican solution is to cut more taxes, cut more spending and outsource more.

[Lorianne]

I think you need to study the map a little harder

[fcsakes]

Why? The repuke's dismantling of America covered the entire country - the map has nothing to do with anything and is based on all kinds of weird statistics, most of which are hogwash.