Latest Metro Area Unemployment Report

Job creation is critical for a sustained economic and housing recovery. It boosts consumer confidence to make large purchases, and it mitigates the factors that cause delinquency and foreclosures. Below you’ll find a look at the unemployment trends with the latest data to May 2011 for 27 large metropolitan areas. Find out which areas had the lowest and highest unemployment rates in May, which states saw decreases in unemployment from last year, and which metro saw the most improvements. For more, see the highlights and full presentation below.

Highlights

• Among the 27 metro areas reviewed, the Washington, DC, area had the lowest May 2011 unemployment rate of 5.8 percent while Las Vegas had the highest, at 12.4 percent.
• Looking at changes in the last year, 24 large metro areas reviewed saw decreases, or improvement, in the unemployment rate. Only two large metro areas reviewed saw an increase, or worsening, in the unemployment rate in that time period while one metro area had no change in the unemployment rate. By comparison, the unemployment rate in the U.S. decreased by 0.6 percentage points in the year.
• Las Vegas had the greatest improvement in unemployment rate over the year. The unemployment rate there fell by 2.5 percentage points, from 14.9 percent to 12.4 percent. Las Vegas actually saw a slight decline in the number of employed coupled with a large decline in the number of unemployed and the number in the labor force. Its labor force decline of 3.4 percent and decline in the number of unemployed of 19.6 percent were the largest among these areas.
• Detroit; Portland, OR; Cleveland; Charlotte; and Pittsburgh followed in improvement in the unemployment rate. Each area had a drop of more than 1 percentage point in the year.
• New Orleans and Memphis had the only increases in unemployment rate over the year. The unemployment rate in New Orleans is now 8.0 percent, and in Memphis it is 10.1 percent.
• Read the entire presentation here >