Jobless data not so rosy
While the Dow soared on the news of lower unemployment claims than expected, the real story is that joblessness is up from last year and not down.
In October, 194 metropolitan areas recorded higher unemployment rates than a year earlier, 117 areas had lower rates, and 20 areas had rates that were unchanged, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Among the nine metropolitan areas with rates of at least 10.0 percent, six were located in California's agricultural Central Valley and the remainder were along the Mexican border in other states. Thirty areas registered jobless rates below 3.0 percent, with 14 located in the Midwest and 10 in the South. The national unemployment rate in October was 5.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted, up from 5.0 percent a year earlier.
Look at where the largest increases in job loss have happened, in our our major economic centers:
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at November 27, 2002 09:32 AM | TrackBack
Among the 274 metropolitan areas for which October nonfarm payroll data were available, 159 reported over-the-year declines in employment, 106 reported increases, and 9 had no change. The largest over-the-year employment decreases were posted in Atlanta, Ga. (-61,800), Chicago, Ill. (-56,800), New York, N.Y. (-43,300), Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash. (-38,900), and San Jose, Calif. (-31,900). The largest over-the-year percentage declines in employment were reported in Decatur, Ill. (-4.7 percent), Flint, Mich. (-3.8 percent), San Jose, Calif., and Danville, Va. (-3.2 percent each), and San Francisco, Calif. (-3.0 percent).