Metropolitan Area Unemployment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
In March, 118 metropolitan areas reported unemployment rates below 4.0 percent, up from 103 areas a year earlier, while 27 areas posted rates of at least 7.0 percent, down from 34 areas in March 2006. Billings, Mont., and Logan, Utah-Idaho, had the lowest unemployment rates, 2.0 percent each. Five heavily agricultural areas registered the highest jobless rates in March: El Centro, Calif., 13.2 percent; Merced, Calif., 10.7 percent; Yuba City, Calif., 10.2 percent; Yuma, Ariz., 10.1 percent; and Visalia-Porter-ville, Calif., 10.0 percent. Overall, 194 areas recorded unemployment rates below the U.S. figure of 4.5 percent, 162 areas had higher rates, and 13 areas had the same rate.
Two Mississippi areas severely affected by Hurricane Katrina again reported the largest over-the-year jobless rate decreases in March: Gulfport-Biloxi and Pascagoula (-5.6 and -1.6 percentage points, respectively). The hurricane struck in August 2005 and sharply raised unemployment rates in these areas in subsequent months. Twenty additional areas had rate decreases of 1.0 percentage point or more. El Centro, Calif., again registered the largest unemployment rate increase from a year earlier (+1.1 percentage points), followed by Jackson, Miss. (+1.0 point).
Of the 49 metropolitan areas with a Census 2000 population of 1 million or more, Birmingham-Hoover, Ala., and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va., recorded the lowest unemployment rates in March, 3.0 percent each. Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich., again posted the highest rate among the large areas, 6.9 percent. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio, and Louisville-Jefferson County, Ky.-Ind., continued to report the next highest rates, 5.6 percent each. Thirty-seven large areas recorded lower unemployment rates than in March 2006, 10 registered higher rates, and 2 had no changes. Among these areas, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas; New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, La.; and Pittsburgh, Pa., posted the largest jobless rate decreases (-1.0 percentage point each). No large area had an unemployment rate increase greater than 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier.
Metropolitan Division Unemployment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
Eleven of the most populous metropolitan areas are composed of 34 metropolitan divisions, which are essentially separately identifiable employment centers. Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, Md., reported the lowest division unemployment rate in March, 2.7 percent, followed by Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla., at 2.9 percent, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va., at 3.0 percent, and Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla., at 3.1 percent. Six additional divisions registered rates below 4.0 percent. The divisions with the highest unemployment rates were Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich., 7.6 percent, and Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, Mass.-N.H., 7.4 percent. No other division had a rate above 6.4 percent.
Twenty-nine of the 34 metropolitan divisions recorded over-the-year unemployment rate decreases in March, 2 had rate increases, and 3 had rates that were unchanged from those of March 2006. The divisions registering the largest jobless rate declines were Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas (-0.9 percentage point) and Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich., and New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. (-0.8 point each). No division posted an over-the-year rate increase greater than 0.2 percentage point.
In 4 of the 11 metropolitan areas that contain divisions, the ranges between the highest and lowest division jobless rates were 1.0 percentage point or more in March. The metropolitan area that had the largest rate difference among its divisions, 3.6 percentage points, was Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H. (Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, Mass.-N.H., 7.4 percent, compared with Framingham, Mass., 3.8 percent).
Metropolitan Area Nonfarm Employment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
In March, 314 metropolitan areas recorded over-the-year increases in nonfarm payroll employment, 46 reported decreases, and 7 had no change. The largest over-the-year employment increases were reported in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (+91,500), followed by Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas (+81,100), Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. (+80,100), New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa. (+68,300), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif. (+51,000), and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash. (+48,200). The largest over-the-year percentage increases in employment were recorded in Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss. (+14.2 percent), Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, La. (+8.2 percent), New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, La. (+6.8 percent), Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, S.C. (+6.7 percent), Jacksonville, N.C. (+6.6 percent), and Dubuque, Iowa (+6.1 percent).
The largest over-the-year decreases in employment occurred in Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich. (-31,200), Pascagoula, Miss. (-6,300), Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa. (-4,600), Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio (-3,800), Elkhart-Goshen, Ind. (-3,200), and Atlantic City, N.J. (-3,100). The largest over-the-year percentage declines in employment were reported in Pascagoula, Miss. (-11.3 percent), Anderson, Ind. (-3.7 percent), Monroe, Mich. (-3.6 percent), Elkhart-Goshen, Ind., (-2.4 percent), Lima, Ohio (-2.3 percent), Atlantic City, N.J. (-2.1 percent), and Jackson, Mich. (-2.0 percent). A strike in Pascagoula, Miss., contributed to that area's large over-the-year decrease in employment. (Workers who are on strike are not counted as employed in the survey that provides the nonfarm payroll employment estimates.)
Over the year, nonfarm employment increased in 35 of the 37 metropolitan areas with annual average employment levels above 750,000 in 2006. The largest over-the-year percentage increases in employment in these large metropolitan areas were recorded in Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. (+4.3 percent), Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas (+3.4 percent), Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev. (+3.3 percent), and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas, and Riverside-San
Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. (+3.2 percent each). Among the largest areas, only two reported decreases in employment: Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich. (-1.6 percent) and Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio (-0.4 percent).
Metropolitan Division Nonfarm Employment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
Nonfarm payroll employment data were available in March 2007 for 32 metropolitan divisions, which are essentially separately identifiable employment centers within a metropolitan area. Thirty of the 32 metropolitan divisions reported over-the-year employment gains, while 2 reported losses. The largest over-the-year employment gains in the metropolitan divisions occurred in Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas (+74,600), New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. (+52,300), Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash. (+43,600), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. (+38,300), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif. (+37,700), and Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill. (+36,200). The largest over-the-year employment declines in the metropolitan divisions occurred in Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich. (-18,400) and Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich. (-12,800).
The largest over-the-year percentage increases in employment among the metropolitan divisions were recorded in Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas (+3.7 percent), Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash. (+3.1 percent), San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif. (+2.7 percent), and Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (+2.0 percent). Over-the-year percentage decreases in employment were reported in Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich. (-1.6 percent) and Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich. (-1.5 percent).
