Unemployment Over 20% in Some Cities

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 29, 6:34AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Unemployment remains more than 20% in two of America’s metro areas, and above 15% in a number of others. While the recession may be over throughout most of the United States, it lingers in some regions.

The unemployment rate in Yuma, Ariz., is 23.8%. In El Centro, Calif., it is 21.6%. El Centro sits in an area of California in which unemployment in many metro areas is double the national average. In Merced the figure is 14.3%, in Yuba City the figure is 14.5%, in Hanford it is 13.1% and in Visalia it is 13.4%. In several metros close to these, the figure is above 10%. Most of them are inland from San Francisco and the area just south of it, which also happens to be among the nation’s most drought-plagued regions. This means jobs recovery is highly unlikely.

ALSO READ: America’s Healthiest Cities

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on metro areas for April, there are a number of other pockets of high unemployment. Among these are the old industrial cities of Illinois, south of Chicago. Unemployment in Decatur is 9.1%. In Danville it is 8.9%, and in Rockford, 9.2%.

Yet another pocket of high unemployment runs from Detroit along the corridor that used to be home to many of the nation’s largest car factories. These include Detroit at 7.9%, Flint at 7.8%, Bay City at 7.7% and Saginaw at 7.5%.

Cities within states that were never deeply damaged by the recession continue to have unemployment rates well below the national average. These include Provo, Utah, at 3%, Midland, Texas, at 3.2% and Odessa, Texas, at 3.9%. Several cities close to these two in Texas have unemployment below 4%. Unemployment across the sparsely populated Northern Plains is also particularly low. The rate in Bismarck, N.D. is 2.6%. In Lincoln, Neb., it is 2.9%, in Des Moines, Iowa, it is 3.9% and in Billings, Mont., 3.3%.

ALSO READ: Cities With the Most Content Workers

BLS summary:

Unemployment rates were lower in April than a year earlier in 357 of the 372 metropolitan areas, higher in 12 areas, and unchanged in 3 areas, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Fourteen areas had jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent and 118 areas had rates of less than 5.0 percent. Nonfarm payroll employment increased over the year in 302 metropolitan areas, decreased in 63 areas, and was unchanged in 7 areas. The national unemployment rate in April was 5.9 percent, not seasonally adjusted, down from 7.1 percent a year earlier.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.