February 5, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Most metropolitan areas experience
jobless rate decrease in 1998
In December 1998, 241 metropolitan areas
reported lower unemployment rates than a year earlier. In 173 of the 328 U.S.
metropolitan areas, unemployment rate declines equaled or exceeded the 0.4 percentage
point decline in the national rate. Rocky Mount, North Carolina, had the largest
over-the-year drop (-2.4 percentage points).
[Chart data—TXT]
The next highest unemployment rate declines were experienced by New
London-Norwich, Connecticut-Rhode Island (-1.9 points), and Decatur, Illinois (-1.8
points). Thirty-seven additional areas registered declines of 1.0 point or more.
At the end of 1998, the lowest unemployment rates among metropolitan areas were in
Charlottesville, Virginia (1.1 percent), Columbia, Missouri (1.2 percent), and
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Rochester, Minnesota (both 1.3 percent).
Six of the eight areas with rates of 1.5 percent or less were in the Midwest.
These data are a product of the Local Area
Unemployment Statisticsprogram. More information can be found in
news release USDL 99-26, "Metropolitan
Area Employment and Unemployment: December 1998." Year-to-year
comparisons are based on changes in not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rates from
December 1997 to December 1998.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »