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:

Quick Poll

When Will The Job Market Improve In Your Area?

In Less Than 3 Months

3 to 6 Months

6 Months to 1 Year

More Than 1 Year From Now

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Click here for a PDF of the BLS report.

Comments

[Cookie100]

INFORMATIONMINISTER SEEMS TO BE CONFUSED!

Listen to me, the economy is a big Ponzi scheme bubble!

[thegreatgiginthesky]

So what happened to all those tax cuts that were supposed to trickle down?

[sueinmn]

Have tax cuts EVER trickled down? Time to stand against the GOP or blue dog tax cuts! We fell for it too many times now.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

They have been telling us for the last 8+ years that tax cuts will create more jobs. Where are the jobs?

[KCFreedom]

We got tinckled on, instead.

[sueinmn]

you mean pi.ss.ed. on.

[fcsakes]

They did trickle down, from the billionaires to the millionaires and they liked it so much they decided they needed more money so they shipped their factories offshore where they could pay the natives 13 cents an hour and then bring their product back to the states and charge $150 for it.

[nomorefed]

People now are getting paid the SAME WAGES as they did in 2000. But are prices at 2000
levels? H3LL NO. So they go into debt, adding more layers tothe USA debt ponzi scheme.

good finance articles: http://heavysidetrade.blogspot.com/

[Kalie]

Everyone is so passionate about the job situation. You would like to think someone is working on it. I just noticed that Obama is skipping off to Marthas Vineyard -- and its only Tuesday. Can't be a weekend trip... Is it summer vacation?? I wonder how many people must forego summer vacation unless it was paid for in advance---way in advance. Must be nice to have a government job with all the perks that go with it.

[MindGrapes]

That's a ridiculous sentiment. The President has a 24-hour a day, seven-day-a-week job. He is as entitled to go on vacation as much as you are or I am or anyone else is, and I guarantee you he is under more pressure than we are, and is expected to - and does - work harder than the average person, and definitely more than his predecessor. Further, just because he is on vacation doesn't mean that suddenly everyone else in government suddenly stops working on the matters at hand. Anyone who thinks otherwise is ignorant at best. Finally, studies have proven time and again that human beings are more productive when they take personal time/vacations. So long as he doesn't go on prolonged, month-long "brush-clearing" retreats during the heights of a crisis that he creates, you should be fine with our President taking a well-deserved breather.

[petridish]

Wait, Obama said he would create 5 MILLION jobs if elected. He then said he would create 5 MILLION jobs if his stimulus and budget would be passed... at the paltry fee of QUADRUPLING Bushies horrible deficits.

Lies, lies , lies. Not to worry we will just give Wall St. Billions more taxpayer dollars.

Funny, THAT sure seems like TRICKLE DOWN economics to me. The only trickle we see on Main St. is coming from the banksters pissing on us while the politicians laugh with them.

[Dystopic]

who cares where he goes? he gets more done in 8 hours than W did in a month.

ANYWHERE the president goes, along comes the staff and the communications

W holds the record for being out of the office ...

[xmw]

yes, his email was constantly on "out of office auto reply"...w­ait he didn't have email.

[Susan Robertson]

Give me a break. That post makes you appear stunningly out of touch. And stupid.

[baxtron]

You're right. He needs to increase his vacation in order to equal the vacation days of Prince Bush. While ordering soldiers into Iraq, Bush golfs. Obama needs to equal that arrogance, but he's just not delivering like Bush could. Disappointed.

[RobinSeattle]

Three words for you, genius:]

"My Pet Goat."

Next!

[conservativesscareme]

after every GOP President we have war, deficit, recession and unemployment oh, but they hold themselves out as the "family values" party LMAO!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!111

[InformationMinister]

Is the liberal version of success in America seeing how many Government programs you can get on?
Just asking??

Information Minister
Loyal Opposition
JohnGalt1984

[Telemachus]

Is your version of success in America seeing how much of working people's wealth can be siphoned off by greedy CEOs until there's a revolution?
Just asking??

Oh, and you're not loyal. That's the whole point of being "Galt"!

[Harry Scrote]

Ah, another Randian. News flash: that's so 20th century.

[dennisrs]

Can you list those presidents?

[baxtron]

Bush, Bush II, Reagan. And that's just in my lifetime. Hoover. Benjamin Harrison.

[petridish]

Actually John Kennedy started Viet Nam and Nixon ended it.

WW2, democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.

WW1, democrat Woodrow Wilson... who by the way was the traitor who passed the Fed Res Act while congress was away on holiday vacation

Study history much?

[sueinmn]

Actually Kennedy may have been eliminated because he was against the war and the war profiteers (Haliburton ? Helocopter) (cheney) wanted to continue. Johnson had little say and became a merely a weak puppet to the GOP when Kennedy was ki..lled. Nixon was recorded as the worst but GWB may have him beat!

[dennisrs]

I thought the economy was doing OK after Reagan too. I know he brought it out of the disaster of Jimmy Carter.

[sealbeach]

Dont forget Truman and Korea.

Wilson got us involved in WW1 after getting himself re-elected in a close election on a pledge to keep us out of it. Oh, and he sent U.S. troops into Latin American countries and established puppet governments in Haiti and Nicaragua.

And of course, the Confedaracy was controlled by Democrats and fired the first shots in the Civil war.

Its interesting that young american men have a tendency to die on foreign battlefields during democratic administrations.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

"Actually John Kennedy started Viet Nam ..."

Actually, no.

If you consider that the war started with the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Kennedy was not in office at that time.

If you otherwise consider that the war started at an earlier time when Army advisors were in Viet Nam, Eisenhower had Army advisors in that country before Kennedy did.

Neither Eisenhower nor Kennedy wanted a war in Viet Nam. Before he was assignated, Kennedy let it be known that he was going to draw down the Army advisors.

He most certainly did not start the war.

[DFL]

This is the end result of 8 years of GOP trickle-down, supply side, tax cuts for the rich economics,
the Bush / GOP depression.

[InformationMinister]

So let me ask you this?
You blame Bush for all of his overspending and you say how wrong that was.
Obama states none of this is his fault and that he had absolutely nothing to do with the current crisis.
You Drones all agree with him and condemn the Evil Bush for getting us into this mess.
And yet you praise Obama for doing the same thing Bush did in regards to spending, only he is spending trillions and trillions more.
That does not make sense!

Information Minister
Loyal Opposition
JohnGalt1984

[huffponewbie]

I may not have invented a machine that harnesses static electricity, but I can read. DFL's comment says nothing about overspending. DFL denounces trickle-down economics. Perhaps before you adopt a moniker that connotes genius you should first work on developing some. (Yes I've read the book)

[dennisrs]

he Bush / Demorat depression, DemoRats had control the last 2 years of Bush

[Telemachus]

Veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto veto

It's Civics 101, for those who took it.

[whiteboyblues]

I now see why you wear a helmet bub.

[fcsakes]

You know that old joke where the fool ends up with an ice cream cone planted square in the middle of his forehead?

That would be you.

[BillOfRights101]

I voted straight democrat in the last 2 elections and as a member I contributed to the campaigns. Why is our 'new' gov't still allowing outsourcing such as the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant's new reactor [costing over 22 Million American dollars] being built in Korea and paid to Koreans rather than helping our nation's workers a 22 million dollar 'incentive' investing in America and the economies of our people was a major promise by the Dems and these types of investments go to Wall Street not working families.
It is outsourcing like this that makes us all mad/angry/and still pissed at Washington
Bill Jacobs
Golden Valley, AZ

[JulieSA]

http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=20029

"... the same governance model is imploding in three of the largest American states where it has been dominant for years — California, New Jersey and New York.

A decade ago all three states were among America’s most prosperous. California was the unrivaled technology center of the globe. New York was its financial capital. New Jersey is the third wealthiest state in the nation after Connecticut and Massachusetts. All three are now suffering from devastating budget deficits as the bills for years of tax-and-spend governance come due.

These states have been models of “progressive” policies that are supposed to create wealth: high tax rates on the rich, lots of government “investments,” heavy unionization and a large government role in health care…
Workers in these paradises are indeed uniting — by leaving. New York ranks first, California second and New Jersey third in moving vans leaving the state. A study by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research found that over the past decade these and other high-union states (mostly in the Northeast) had one-third the job growth of states with low union penetration.

This is why we have federalism, folks. And you know the state that’s doing well? Texas. Why doesn’t Washington try emulating that? Including a part-time legislature (though as fast as these vandals rush bills through, they can do a lot of damage even if they only meet for a month)."

[TruDude]

If you use the same logic, Florida is the worst (Not California, New York, or New Jersey). Maybe it has nothing to do with Liberalism, Conservatism, or Federalism. I think it has more to do with the US becoming a service industry with no real value.

[baxtron]

Schwartenager cut taxes on vehicles, license fees as one part of his admin and the bill came due. Sorry to respond with the truth. I know Reprivitans hate the truth contradicting their brownshirt meetings.

[whiteboyblues]

Texas has lopsided stats because of all the minimum wage jobs down here. Believe me, you don't want Washington emulating us down here. The Devil has Texas!

[sueinmn]

Could be because they were already ordered prior to Obama> These are ordered 2-4 yrs in advance. I know by experience. My hubby worked in France and Sweden on the Generator replacement for our local nuke. I agree, we need to endoutsourcing and I do hope this is on Os agenda soon down the road. He has quite a list and is attacking them one by one.

[BabblingBrooks]

Wouldn't spending more money be wasteful?

Is it logical to vote a straight party ticket?

If our companies wanted the jobs, could they bid lower?

This is a global economy and the world is shrinking.

[fcsakes]

Could they bid lower? Oh, I don't know, can you live on 13 cents an hour? How about no benefits and 80 hour weeks, not to mention they're not real great on the comfort stuff either, like fans in the summer and heat in the winter.

Global economy? Only for rich people and they will tromp all over their own children to keep it that way.

[estevancarlos]

and my temp job ends in two months... and i'm in los angeles. i got something to look fwd to.

[BabblingBrooks]

Do they have liberal politicians, are they in liberal states? Interesting, huh?

[Harry Scrote]

Is your question rhetorical - b/c it sounds like you already answered your own question. And no is the answer, in case it's not rhetorical.

[Telemachus]

Transposing cause and effect again, I see.

Watch as more high-unemployment areas begin trending "blue" because the starve-government, pay-tribut­e-to-the-r­ich policies of the past 40 years have proven to be nothing but scams and false promises.

[noozone]

You seem to be selectively viewing this chart, since I see huge concentrations of unemployment in Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, North and South Carolinia, etc.

So no, your point is neither interesting, nor a point.

[dennisrs]

Mostly blue states.

[Telemachus]

And a big swath of Appalichia and the Rust Belt. Face it, about the ONLY areas that haven't got high unemployment are areas where there weren't many jobs to begin with.

[davidwayneosedach]

California boasts 7 of the highest unemployment cities. In the end - the Fed will have to bail them out.

[FoonTheElder]

The job market hasn’t picked up in this whole decade. The games that continue to get played with unemployment statistics are criminal. For years, the unemployment rate went down at the same time the number of jobs worked went down. That happened because somehow the number of people in the job market mysteriously decreased. The real unemployment rate, as computed by the pre-Clinton methods per www.shadowstats.com is about 20%. Wages haven’t kept up with inflation in the past 30 years.

All ‘Bush Lite’ Obama has done is to shove trillions of dollars in corporate welfare to big corporations. He operates just like George W. Bush. Give big money to the big corporations and wealthy, and throw a few bucks in rebates to everyone else. It’s just more of the same old failed trickle down economics. When are the infrastructure projects going to start, just before the 2012 elections?

Unemployment won’t go down much because nothing has been done to make it go down. If our government would quit handing out trillions in corporate welfare and selling out to big contributors, then maybe that might change….ju­st don’t bet on that happening any time soon.

[JuliusR]

Between 2000 and 2008, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union gave
$23,675,562
to the Democratic Party
and its candidates.
If our government would quit handing out trillions in corporate welfare and selling out to big contributors, then maybe that might change�.ju­st don"t bet on that happening any time soon.

So well said , Comrade!

In 2008 alone, the UAW gave $4,161,567 to the Democratic Party,
including
Barack Obama.

In return, the UAW received 55 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of
GM,
plus billions of
dollars.

But nobody's calling this a scandal. It's time we start.

[FoonTheElder]

55% & 17.5% of next to nothing, is still next to nothing. Technically the UAW didn't receive it, the trust that the auto companies set up a couple of years ago to pay for retiree health care is who received it. Since then, GM and Chrysler haven't funded it as originally promised. And even then, many of the retirees are going to end up without health care.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090630/BUSINESS01/90630025/1002/BUSINESS/Henderson+admits+health+care+to+lapse

The trust will need to sell most of this stock to pay for the retiree health care. They aren't holding onto it so they can run the company. The UAW has stated for decades that they don't want to make management decisions.

[enoughalready13]

Did you see Wall Street had the best quarter since this crisis erupted? That is preposterous. And those same banks are raising worker salaries/bonuses while simultaneously increasing consumer interest rates, credit card restrictions, fees on refinancings, deposit requirements, etc. So these institutions FAIL, COLLAPSE and then SOAR based on taxpayer bailouts provided by CEO Obama. Nice example you are reinforcing, Mr. President.

Every day I read of another magazine folding, another company filing bankruptcy, another state laying off workers, another school not renewing contracts, another park service cut, another major program outsourced. Every single one of these results in less workers/jobs. Yet all the "government released economic indicators" are "improving­." The numbers simply do not add up. Math does not lie, but govt officials do. There is NO QUESTION these numbers are being manipulated to keep everyone placated, quiet, obedient and subserviant.

[baxtron]

maybe if we cut more taxes, that would solve these problems you bring up.

[forty8r]

You are reight we are in a depression except for the top .01% who can never spend more than they earn from dividends and interest.

[WildElf]

What a ridiculous poll. When will the jobs pick up? The answer is, on average 18 months after the indicators like the stock market, exports, and industry supplies pick up. Since that has barely started happening in some areas (and there hasn't been enough data to see if it's anything more than a bump in a downhill ride) the answer is 18 months or more for everyone. Instead the poll should be:
1 year to 18 months
18 months to 2 years
2 years to 3 years
3 years or more

[AnotherMcIntosh]

"The answer is, on average 18 months after the indicators like ..."

The historical average, if we assume that 18 months is accurate, is not an accuate indicator of when jobs will pick up because (1) we have never had a situation in which so many jobs have been shipped overseas and (2) we have never had a situation in which so many illegal aliens have competed with Americans with low-wage jobs.

In fact, based upon the actions of employers since NAFTA was signed, it appears that as soon as there is a reason for employment to pick up in this country, potential employers will either seek to transfer the jobs to foreign countries or will seek to further employ more illegal aliens.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

Michigan suffers from the "eggs in one basket" problem


Especially since the eggs are rotten and the basket has a big hole in it.

[hopefulnana]

I've noticed they have some beautiful ads and wonder if they're going more for tourism trade.

[JulieSA]

Good observation. They're spending a lot of moolah on those ads.

[Telemachus]

Should've done it long ago. Michigan is a beautiful state, except for the blighted industrial parts.

[DI-1957]

I graduated high school in 75. Michigan economy sucked then and sucks now. We have been in recession for the last 35 years. My FOMOCO job went to Mexico in 1979. Unemployment benifits ran a year and were not taxed. I'm a boomer and I'm sick of the economy kicking my ass. I'm 51 with no pension, half my 401k and half my IRA. I can't even think of getting out of my dead end job and feel as if I'm a slave.
USA has been very fortunate compared to third world, problem is Michigan is 3rd world. Things like state income tax, climate, loss of manufacturing, demise of union jobs, crazy high auto insurance and property taxes keep Michigan down, not any more Dems than Repubs fault. I blame both and believe them equally at fault.
Constitution Convention is needed.
#1 Campaign Finance Reform
#2 Single payer health care
#3 nationalize banks and oil/utilities.
#4 require the congress to erase one law for every new one.
#5 Progressive sales tax.
Socialist? Our current system is not free market is not democratic and is not working.

[Sarita]

You hit the nail on the head. We are being told that the five items listed here are all BAD for the USA. But what's bad is the result that all of us have to live with because these are ingrained into our society.

I can understand why the insurance companies don't want universal health coverage as it would dig into their profits, but what I cannot figure out is why the US corporations aren't all over this as it would remove a vast amount of liability for their retirees and increase their profits going forward if they aren't responsible for health insurance.

Thing of how better off the US A would be if we did just put these five items into place. And then, we could go to the next five:

#1 A reasonable living wage for all with wage caps at the top end
#2 Environmental laws that make sense
#3 Drug laws that made sense
#4 City planning that takes into account people, not automobles
#5 An end to the 24/7 news cycle

[Rumplestiltskin]

Hey comrade, great plan. It sure worked out well in the USSR.

[iblogleft]

Wait till Julys numbers come out, and Junes revision is here. We need more focus on re-tooling for industrial production.

[JoeBlough]

You mean re-tooling what we sent overseas? Not much left here.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

Or re-tooling the ones that the uber-rich are still planning to send overseas.

During the campaing, didn't Obama promise something about revisiting NAFTA?

Didn't he promise something about doing away with the tax incentives for sending jobs to foreign countries? When is this going to happen?