Even with other positive job indicators in June, our 0.9 percent jump in the unemployment rate didn’t do us any favors when we’re stacked against the nation’s 372 metro areas.
In June, the Rockford metro area’s 14.8 percent rate was tied for the 13th highest rate in the nation, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our rate was the highest in the Midwest, topping even perennial unemployment losers Detroit (14.3 percent) and Flint, Mich. (14.1 percent).
Our 0.4 percentage point decrease in the unemployment rate from June 2009 to June 2010 made us one of 185 metro areas to register a year-over-year decrease. The biggest yearly drops were in two hard-hit rust belt cities: Kokomo, Ind., which saw the rate drop 7.2 percent, and Elkhart-Goshen, Ind., which fell 4.2 percentage points.
See the news release here, a table of unemployment rates here and over-the-year unemployment rate changes here.
