Unemployment In June: The Worst-Hit Cities (MAP)

Unemployment rates climbed in all U.S. metropolitan areas from last June to this June, the government announced on Wednesday. Some of the jumps were dramatic. And the unemployment rate in 18 areas now surpasses 15 percent. Most of the hardest hit metro areas are in California and Michigan.

Of the 49 metropolitan areas with a population of over 1 million, the Detroit area once again claims the sad prize of highest unemployment, with a rate of 17.1 percent, up from 14.9 percent in May and an 8.1 percent point increase year over year. The Riverside-San Bernardino area came in second, with a rate of 13.7 percent, followed by the Charlotte area at 12.4 percent.

The large area with the lowest unemployment rate in June was Oklahoma City, at 6 percent. Second-lowest was the greater Washington D.C. area, at 6.6 percent.

El Centro, Calif., again recorded the highest unemployment rate of all metro areas, with 27.5 percent out of work.

The Huffington Post has been profiling regular folks dealing with the recession. Click here to see some of their stories.

Here's a map from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows the damage. Areas in dark gray surpassed the national rate of 9.7 percent while areas in light gray were 9.7 or below in June.

Click here for a PDF of the Labor Department's report.

HuffPost readers: Have you lost your health insurance due to unemployment? Are you struggling to cover health expenses? Tell us about it -- email [e-mail].

Comments

[bluecollarblogger]

01:16 AM on 08/01/2009

Times are going to be hard for American workers and predictions in the market are good for economic recovery? What are these guys thinking? Economic growth and jobs go hand in hand and in the last two recessions we have seen this tried and true relationship get broken. Why? No one is sure...but one thing is sure we have to fix it. Everyone is getting ready for Christmas ....now! And if we are trying to figure out how we are going to pay the fuel bills, and the heating bills, and the grocery bill on unemployment I do not know how things are going to turn around without some stimulus in the jobs market. the goverment has tried to do its part. You have got to put the American worker back in the picture....he is the one which is going to turn everything around, money in his pocket then he will spend it! Demands for goods and services go up and guess what... demand for materials go up......more people get jobs.......they spend more......get the picture guys! Every major business in this country needs to find some way......one way .....cut all those big bonuses and perks at the top......hire some minimum wage workers........its time for business to do its part ......if we could do this put people to work doing anything.........tighten our belts and create jobs.....then the domino affect...would take place and the economy would turn around.

[HillbillyBob]

02:32 PM on 08/01/2009

No not minimum wage workers, it has to be enough to live on. I have 'lived' on minimum wage and my current SSD (job injury) is 800$ a month, that does not really make me a middle class income earner. I barely get by. I can make the bills, but no extra. I'm not a clothes horse by any means, I have gotten my share from Goodwill . Now its hard times for most I can't find decent clothes and I have not bought any.

These corps ship jobs overseas and pay folks 30 cents a day for jobs that we earned 15- 30$ an hour pay managers million$ and little to the people who actually do the work. I wrote to Levis when they closed up shop here in Greensboro after about 95 years and said i would not buy jeans anymore, the price is the same but their cost is a lot less. What the cost to the employees who have a mortgage, kids to feed, bills to pay does not matter to them, so long as managers and shareholder get their cut..
I have been downsized and outsourced many times. Now I live on less than 1/3 of what I was making and that was not all that great. My take home is now less 10g when I made 35g. So forget minimum wage jobs, besides the fact NO come with any kind of benefits, if you are lucky you get paid for most of the hours.

[FaeKnight]

07:40 PM on 07/31/2009

miamivalleyjournal:
"Where do student loans fit into this mixture? Due to high interest rates on student loans plus the high cost of a college education the middle class will find it increasingly difficult to contribute to the economy."
---

Throw into the mix the high number of H1B visas that are brought in because employers claim there are not enough "qualified" citizens.

M!cro$oft has a huge number of H1B software engineers for that supposed reason while the number of unemployed software engineers in Seattle has been among the highest in the nation.

][ntel is one of the highest employers of H1Bs. I used to work there. My boss was one as were most of the engineers in my group (some from former sov!et bl0c countries). I had discussed the issue with them on numerous occasions and what I gathered was this:

Most of these H1Bs had their education paid for free in their country of origin (because that state valued education), all the way up through Master's and PhD and those that didn't get free education, had ultra low tuition rates comparatively. They were brought in at that higher education level for less salary than a recent collage grad resident at the baccalaureate level.

How is a US citizen with astronomical educational debt supposed to compete with someone who has a FREE education at a higher level in a situation of in-sourcing at best or indentured servitude at worst (fear of being deported if fired).

[Quinny]

03:47 AM on 07/31/2009

By the end of this year 13 million people - ie: those that have lost their
jobs in the last two years and their dependents - will exhaust their
unemployment benefits. Since unemployment benefits total but a fraction
of what they were earning while employed, most of these people
will have also spent any savings they may have had. In essence,
they will be flat broke. Now...someone tell me where ALL OF THESE
PEOPLE are going to find jobs? If you look at THE FACTS you will
realize that BOTH the Democratic AND Republican parties have
brought this country to its knees economically. This false
left / right paradigm that we have created has not solved a
single problem facing this country, and has in fact stopped
us from making any real change or progress. I predict that in the
next six months, you will see events occur in this country that
many will never have thought possible, and will certainly NOT
be to our benefit...

[andip]

04:28 PM on 07/31/2009

Exactly! Politicians and their mistress (the media) are using party lines to divide the American people. If we would stop taking the bait and just vote every politician out of office they would get the message that we're tired of business as usual.

[CommunistUtopia]

10:48 PM on 07/30/2009

Simple economic Recovery plan.

1) Reduce taxes, both individual and corporate;
2) Decrease government spending specifically massive cuts in Dep. of Education, Agr., Energy, go back to 1995 levels of federal spending
3) Start drilling for our own oil and building more nuclear and coal plants
4) Secure our borders in all areas
5) Privatize social security and make health insurance purchasing similar to buying car insurance, no more government.

That's a winning campaign for 2012.

[zava91910]

05:03 AM on 07/31/2009

And this will help how?

How about regulating securities agencies to help prevent a massive bubble?

How about limiting corporate loopholes? I think that has been a major part of most campaigns, but absolutely nothing has come about because of it. What is Goldman Sachs "taxable" income?

[enufalready]

02:20 PM on 07/31/2009

LOL

[khristmaskathy]

09:06 PM on 07/30/2009

Who likes the change we have gotten with the new administration? All of you who are happy with the change we are getting raise their hands! HAHAHA!

[wordvarc]

12:40 AM on 07/31/2009

How naive. This economic bust was 25 year or more in the making.

[Newspeaking]

02:20 PM on 07/31/2009

I agree. It's totally naive to think there was going to be any change.

[dragonfly2x]

06:28 PM on 07/31/2009

Hi:

giving you the virtual "bird"

[Pettit]

11:35 AM on 07/30/2009

The middle of the country is empty compared to the East and the West cost. Besides, they are not in a free market but in an ocean of subsidies that we the majority of the inhabitants in both coasts pick up the tab.

Wake up middle America!

[Expatslacker]

03:43 PM on 07/30/2009

Afraid they might in 2010.

[fed U]

11:29 AM on 07/30/2009

just like in the last bull market and econ recovery, main street gets left in the cold while wall street prospers...

good articles... http://www.iamned.com

[bynddrvn5]

08:59 AM on 07/30/2009

And so the war rages on, as the wealthiest people in the US continue to rob the poor and middle class. How long do we need to see our pay checks cut, before we revolt?!

Big business in the US, has been very consistent over the past decade or so, pay your people as little as possible and top executives pay themselves an absurdly large bonus for all the money they saved their company. Big business is using the recession as a way to push worker's salaries down again and the data supports this. For example, if revenue is down 10% businesses have been cutting staff and salaries down for a 20 to 30% reduction in revenue.

When I was a consultant I sat through one too many meetings with some egomanic that was laughing about laying people off during the month of December, while pushing for the largest bonus they could get away with.

This post is not anti business, if these egomanics were better businesspeople they would be building up their businesses now, like Andrew Carnegie did during recessionary periods. The main reason for this, is while some of these guys/gals could recite every book they read while attending Harvard for their MBA, they still suck as business leaders. If you make your customer and employee your enemy, you can make some extra money in the short run but this is not a model for a long term healthy relationship.

[ChristianEcon.com]

09:38 AM on 07/30/2009

Well said; the only thing I would add is the demonization of unionization has also accompanied this slide. It's always a key element of corporate / neocon propaganda, and for good reason, since the primary function of conservative ideology is to transfer as much wealth as possible from working people to the rich (their secondary function being to hide the fact).

[RSU]

09:59 AM on 07/30/2009

That is a flat out lie and you should know it.

The primary function of conservatism is to ensure you have the freedoms necessary to create your own wealth.

The rich stay rich because they have the money to make more money. It's liberal policies that take from the people and not just from those who can most afford it, but from those who can afford it least.

Liberalism is nothing more than limitation . . . and it applies to everything they can get their hands on.

[RSU]

09:53 AM on 07/30/2009

Honestly, if you were offered a contract for your services that paid you $20 million per year and had an exit clause for $185 million more in stocks and cash, are you so sure you wouldn't sign it?

There are very few products that a person must have to survive in life. It's the other things in life that are so expensive, but only if you don't shop around for the best deal you can get.

[Saidas]

10:08 AM on 07/30/2009

In theory this may be true, but in practice, it is anything but.

[Lauralics]

08:28 AM on 07/30/2009

sandals I'm a Fan of sandals I'm a fan of this user permalink Hey Carl, this mess was due to George W Bush, you know the guy who ran the Texas Rangers into the ground and than his daddy's friends from Saudi Arabia helped dig him out of.

I live in Michigan and our state got no help from "W", as for the left wanting a hand out you are wrong we just want things to be fair, we don't make anything in this country Bush's idea of an economy was the
service industry,
----------------------------------------------------
This is the classic thought process of the Democrat in Michigan, blame George Bush. It is always completely ignored that it was Clinton that signed in NAFTA which started that great sucking sound. Bush merely continued an Agreement from the previous administration and took all the blame for its results. Prez Obama's campaign promises in the Midwest revolved around addressing the problems in NAFTA and boy did that go bye-bye when he became President. So blaming Bush for the very Agreement that Obama is willing to continue as well is ridiculous!

[SeekingSanity]

09:37 AM on 07/30/2009

You're absolutely right, NAFTA was signed by Bill Clinton in 1994. But evidently here is something you didn't know:

"NAFTA was signed by U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Mexican President Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1992. It was ratified by the legislatures of the three countries in 1993. The U.S. House approved it by 234 to 200 on November 17 and the Senate by 60 to 38 on November 20. It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 8, 1993 and entered force January 1,1994. Although it was started by President Bush, it was a priority of President Clinton's, and its passage is considered one of his first successes. (Source: History.com, NAFTA Signed into Law, December 8, 1993." (http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/NAFTA_History.htm)

Huh, looks like it IS a Bush's "fault"...

[P T]

05:37 PM on 07/30/2009

Sooooo, Pres Clinton passed/ approved of the legislation, and it's still GHWB's fault? And that is what's wrong with the country folks... LOL. This kind of thinking is going to drive the Bamster Bus right off the cliff. Blame anyone else just not the Dem leader. My friend, you need to wake up and forget your government education and gain a bit of common sense about life. Or you will loose your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It will be turned into, slavery, no liberty, and no happiness. WOW......

[kwaut lizard]

08:17 AM on 07/30/2009

Keep borrowing America .... the rest of the world just loves it.

Probly shoulda stuck with a gold standard huh?

[HermoineNorris]

08:40 AM on 07/30/2009

What is hilarious is that many Americans still think the USA is the richest nation on earth.........NOT EVEN CLOSE.

[3rdpartypatriot]

09:28 AM on 07/30/2009

Really? Per capita we may not be, but in terms of whole GDP this is the richest, most productive country in the world. Billionaire citizens of the US = billionaire citizens of every country in the world

[citizenx]

08:01 AM on 07/30/2009

We know that the unemployment numbers are made up by Fox News and the Bushes. Obama stated that if they stimulus package was not pushed through that unemployment would surpass 8%. Since it is nearing 10%, the Right must be fudging the numbers to make PBO look bad. Is there no end to what the Bushes and Murdoch will do?

[957]

08:04 AM on 07/30/2009

Hey I have some ocean front property in arizona to sell ya.

[RSU]

08:16 AM on 07/30/2009

Your comment is satire, right?

[P T]

05:49 PM on 07/30/2009

Surely to God it is RSU. But you never know. And on those numbers used for unemployment, you still believe it is just pushing 10%? No one has taken into account that there are a large number of self employed people with only 1 employee, themselves. I would guess unemplymnt, is probly closer to 19 or 20%. Maybe because out of the say 15 or so subcontractors I know are out of work. Partly due to illegal mexicans doing the job for less than half, and partly due to the housing bubble that Clinton helped inflate....

[J in CA]

05:12 AM on 07/30/2009

We need to get back to a balance where executives do well but aren't made to be millionaires while they are laying people off left and right. GREED is what's killing our country!!! our population is always growing yet every company we have seems to want to cut jobs and give out big bonuses to the people at the top who already make too much. You can't call many companies for tech support anymore (verizon dsl, Dell, microsoft....etc) without getting to talk to someone in either India, Pakistan, El salvador or some other country where English isn't the primary language, when you need technical help communication is key yet all of these tech based companies have out sourced so many jobs to other countries yet keep raising our prices. We definetly need to stop sending jobs out of the country and start making things here again besides debt.

[J in CA]

04:57 AM on 07/30/2009

Environmentalists are not causing our problem so that guy/girl that said that is WAAAAYYYY off. As far as our "open door policy" that's because republicans don't want to do anything about it, they want the business owners to have the cheap labor, hell Bush wanted to have a work program to make it legal to employ undocumented workers at below min wage. Again you don't know what you are talking about.

[Carol06095]

08:33 AM on 07/30/2009

Of course Democrats just want them to be illegal and work below minimum wage. The difference is?????????

[J in CA]

04:54 AM on 07/30/2009

The idiots talking about CA getting what we deserve crack me up, we were doing badly well before obama was elected. We have a republican governor and obstructionist republicans in state government. We need a new state constitution because we can't get anything done the way things are set up now. Again I love people from states with 15 people talking badly about CA, you have NO IDEA what you are talking about but it's funny to hear you talk like you know what's going on. Again this recession started while your party had the white house and not enough democrats to get anything done because Bush would just veto anything they wanted to do. Again this is a republican caused problem, greed and trying to make the rich richer is a mostly republican philosophy and that's the mind set that caused this mess.

[VivaZapata]

03:39 AM on 07/30/2009

Unemployment is epidemic at this point. less purchasing power translates into more businesses closing which results in more unemployment which yields more closings which .... the injections administered by bush and unfortunately, gone along with by Obama of trusting goldman sachs to help anyone other than themselves is wrongheaded.

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

04:03 AM on 07/30/2009

As dollar devalus, purchasing power will drop more. When gas is $4 a gallon, this country is in a Depression with inflation.

[proudem]

09:03 AM on 07/30/2009

Yep, yep. Good Point.