Unemployment falls in a majority of US cities

[Benny B]

Unemployment falls in a majority of US cities
Unemployment falls in a majority of large metro areas as recovery spreads

Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer, On Wednesday April 28, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Unemployment rates fell or remained level in three-quarters of the 372 largest metropolitan areas, a sign that the economic recovery is widespread.

The Labor Department said Wednesday the jobless rate dropped in 69 percent of metro areas last month from February. It rose in 24 percent of large cities and remained the same in the rest.

That's an improvement from February, when the unemployment rate decreased in 51 percent of metro areas and increased in one-third.

The report follows other recent encouraging news about jobs. Employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the government said earlier this month, the most significant gain in three years.

Still, the growth wasn't enough to bring down the unemployment rate, which remained at 9.7 percent for the third straight month.

The metro unemployment data isn't seasonally adjusted and can be volatile from month to month. Some of the cities with sharp drops last month in unemployment recorded big increases in February. That could reflect the impact of February's massive snowstorms, economists said.

Steven Cochrane, managing director at Moody's Analytics, said Wednesday's report shows employment nationwide is stabilizing.

"The recovery really is spreading broadly across the country," Cochrane said. "I'm not seeing any regional clusters ... that look like they're shifting relative to others."

Year-over-year figures, which cancel out seasonal variations, also show improvement. But they also illustrate how far much of the country has to go to recover from the recession.

The jobless rate dropped in only 41 metro areas in March compared to the previous year, while rising in 321. As recently as December, the unemployment rate fell in only one area compared to a year earlier.

The report shows unemployment is still widespread. Twenty-eight cities reported jobless rates above 15 percent, compared to 29 in February. Fifteen of those cities were in California and five were in Michigan.

Unemployment topped 10 percent in 164 cities last month, down from 187 in both January and February.

Among the 49 cities with a population of 1 million or more, the Detroit metro area had the highest unemployment rate, the department said, at 15.5 percent. The Riverside, Calif. metro area had the second highest, at 15 percent.

The New Orleans metro area had the lowest rate among cities with 1 million or more, at 6 percent, followed by Oklahoma City at 6.1 percent. Both regions have benefited from higher oil prices in recent months. New Orleans' port has seen a jump in international trade.

[Soul Crusher]

Horray!   10% UE and are happy? 

[Soul Crusher]

CHART OF THE DAY: 49 Out Of 50 State Economies Are Still Underwater
www.businessinsider.com

 
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Vincent Fernando, CFA and Kamelia Angelova | Apr. 28, 2010, 2:31 PM | 3,277 |  17
 
 
49 out of 50 U.S. states are still showing less economic activity than a year ago, based on February 2010 coincident economic indicators from the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia. The chart below is organized from top to bottom, from the most growth in economic activity to the largest declines in economic activity.

States like West Virginia (WV), Maryland (MD), Idaho (ID), and Wyoming (WY) are the worst off year over year. Their February 2010 economic activity remained 13.5%, 6.3%, 6.3%, and 6.2% lower year over year. Thus their economies, along with those of another 45 states, all the red ones, are all underwater on an annual basis.

North Dakota (ND) is the only state to currently have a higher level of economic activity year over year. Its February 2010 economic activity was 1.1% higher than February 2009, as shown by the green dot in the chart below.

Moreover, 28 out of 50 states even exhibited less economic activity in February 2010 than just three months earlier (not directly shown below). This means they have been deteriorating most recently as well.

In fact, the chart below is organized from left to right by the change in economic activity in the last three months (February 2010 vs. November 2009).

Thus West Virginia (WV), Maryland (MD), Montana (MT), and Delaware (DE), have seen their economic activity fall since November 2009 the most, given that they are the left-most dots. For example, West Virginia's economic activity fell 3.1% vs. November 2009 (percentage not shown). In contrast, Michigan has done the best most recently, given that it is the right-most dot, rising 1.5% vs. November 2009 (percentage not shown).

Net-net what this tells us is that 49 out of 50 state economies are still underwater on a one year basis, and 28 out of 50 are even still falling vs. November.



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Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-economic-activity-for-us-states-2010-4#ixzz0mRCUuWG0

[Bindare_Dundat]

Benny really needs to learn to read the whole article before he posts them.

[Hugo Chavez]

Benny really needs to learn to read the whole article before he posts them.

lol