Yesterday in our Daily Data Discussion post we looked at markets around the country with the best nonfarm employment growth rates.  Today let’s look at a category germane to employment growth – unemployment rates.  

As noted in previous posts and in our newsletters, we used data reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and various other regional and (few) local sources to track this information for the markets our team follows.  Data reported here is the annualized unemployment rate reported for each market; note that we’ve again utilized a 6-month rolling average of the available information so as to smooth out the inevitable anomalous data that creeps into the system. 

We have a larger list published every month in our newsletter (The Emerging Market Report), and offer a free list of state by state total unemployment rate update monthly on our Free Resources page. 

In some markets today, unemployment rates are quite impressive, and a bit more than what you hear reported on the news.  Of interest, several of these markets are located in regions that experience the highest appreciation rates of single family homes during the frenzy. 

Here are the worst five unemployment rate markets in our database as of today:

1.  El Centro, CA  20.2%
2.  Yuma, AZ   11.4%
3.  Visalia, CA   10.9%
4.  Bakersfield, CA  9.9%
5.  Flint, MI   9.7%

Tomorrow we’ll begin a two day look at Financial and Technology employment around the country. 

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