18 metros post jobless rates above 10%

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2009/03/16/daily41.html

Thursday, March 19, 2009, 10:42am EDT

Business First of Buffalo - by G. Scott Thomas

Eighteen of the nation's 100 largest labor markets now have unemployment rates of 10 percent or more, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report issued Thursday.

Three inland California markets are saddled with the nation's worst jobless rates -- 15.7 percent in Fresno, 15.1 percent in Stockton and 13.8 percent in Bakersfield. Toledo has the highest unemployment rate outside of California, 13.3 percent.

Only one major market is below 5 percent -- Salt Lake City, at 4.6 percent.

The list of America's worst jobless rates is a mixture of Sunbelt and Northern industrial markets. Buffalo, according to the New York state Department of Labor, had earlier placed the area's jobless rate at 9 percent.

Twelve of the 18 metros above the 10-percent mark are in California, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas, states that enjoyed prosperity for most of the decade. Two factors -- the bursting of the real-estate bubble and the subsequent decline of the banking industry -- have hit those markets with exceptional force.

FULL story and list of cities at link.