Posted on 06/02/2010 4:44:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Southern California town of El Centro suffers the worst unemployment rate in the nation, with nearly 28 percent of its work force without a job, the Labor Department announced today. It was the low point of a report that showed jobless rates are up across the U.S.
The report on April unemployment in 372 metropolitan areas suggests that California continues to be the state hardest hit by the epidemic of joblessness that followed the 2008-2009 financial crisis. It's home to 11 of the 14 U.S. metro areas that posted unemployment rates greater than 15 percent. (See how your city ranks.)
And with the number of cities afflicted by 10 percent joblessness or worse leaping to 128 from just 91 a year earlier, and unemployment climbing in 291 of the 372 cities, today's report highlights the persistent economic and political problem posed by the labor market.
"The devastation created by the deepest downturn since the Great Depression has hit people and communities across our country very hard," President Barack Obama noted during a political speech in Pittsburgh. "And it's not going to be a real recovery until people can feel it in their own lives."
With unemployment sure to be one of the biggest issues in November's midterm elections, politicians will join economists in closely reading the national employment and payroll reports for May that are scheduled to be released Friday.
The job creation numbers for April showed a steady increase so far this year in businesses' willingness to hire. But the rising national unemployment rate that month, to a seasonally adjusted 9.9 percent, showed how long a road the country has in putting back to work all those Americans who lost their jobs during the recession.
El Centro, the main city of Imperial County -- with a population of 166,874 in the arid desert region east of San Diego near the Mexican border -- was already suffering high unemployment in April 2009, when its jobless rate was just over 27 percent.
The city with the second-highest unemployment rate was Yuma, Ariz., at 24.4 percent, while Bismarck, N.D. (3.6 percent) and the Fargo, N.D., metro area that sprawls into Minnesota (3.9 percent) enjoyed the healthiest jobless situations.
The Las Vegas region suffered the worst year-to-year increase in unemployment among American cities, up 3.7 percentage points at 14.2 percent, and also had the second-highest rate among metro areas with 1 million citizens or more, behind Detroit (14.8 percent).
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Whereas the USA’s U6 is probably the same as El Centro’s regular rate.
If we include illegal aliens without full time employment in El Centro the rate probably goes up to 90%.
That's something Obama can try and boast about at his next liberal get together.
"The city with the second-highest unemployment rate was Yuma, Ariz., at 24.4 percent,"
Both cities on the border.....Both top unemployment rate in nation........Coincidence????????????
Does this include illegal aliens, or are they just counted for census purposes?
El Centro is a Border Patrol town, that is probably the largest employer (along with the hospital that delivers all those anchor babies .)
I drove through El Centro a couple of times to vacation in San Felipe. This was back in the 80’s. It was a terrible dump. I went into a large grocery store and OMG it was filthy. Cigarettes put out in the frozen vegtables, spilled ??? on the unmopped floors. Just plain awful. The whole town was filthy and disgusting. The only thing that made it half way presentable was it’s sister city, Mexicali. Talk about an ugly sister.
I wish all the people who think that open borders are great and that uncontrolled immigration brings positive things to communities could see El Centro (and Brawly, Indio etc).
Just creating the filth Americans won’t do.
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