Guess Which Cities Lead in Unemployment?

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Sep 2 2009, 3:11 pm by Derek Thompson

The MichiCaliFlAriVada crisis is still rolling. Let me explain: It's long been my pet theory that the worst of the worst in the Great Recession of 2009 is focused in five states: Michigan, California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada. The first is home to collapsing manufacturing and auto giants, while the latter four represent the epi-centers of the real estate earthquake and the credit crisis.

Now the Bureau of Labor Statistics has fresh city-by-city unemployment numbers for July 2009, and you'll never guess which states face the worst damage...

In terms of unemployment, California and Arizona have the worst cities, Michigan has the worst large metro area (followed by California and Nevada) and a couple Arizona cities have the worst year-over-year percent decline in employment. From the report:

El Centro, Calif., recorded the highest unemployment rate (among metropolitan areas), 30.2 percent, followed by Yuma, Ariz., 26.2 percent....

Among the 19 areas with jobless rates of at least 15.0 percent, 8 were located in California and 5 were in Michigan...

Of the 49 metropolitan areas with a Census 2000 population of 1 million or more, Detroit-Warren- Livonia, Mich., reported the highest unemployment rate in July, 17.7 percent. The large areas with the next highest rates were Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., 14.3 percent; Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., 13.1 percent...

The largest over-the-year percentage decline in employment was reported in Lake Havasu City-Kingman, Ariz. (-9.3 percent), followed by Prescott, Ariz. (-8.9 percent), Reno-Sparks, Nev. (-8.4 percent), and Holland-Grand Haven, Mich. (-8.3 percent)...

Florida has no metro areas with nation-leading unemployment, but as the map below shows, practically the entire state is above the US average unemployment rate of 9.4 percent.