A variety of factors contribute to our understanding regarding the current state of the economy. It’s not a simple issue. One indicator stands out though as especially significant, at least as far as many working Americans are concerned: unemployment rates. And, this fall, it seems we’ve been getting some good news.
(Photo Credit: Bryan Debus/Flickr)
The Labor Department reported last month on the unemployment rates of the 51 metropolitan areas in the U.S. with a population greater than 1 million. In the last year, from September 2014 to September 2015, all but two saw nonfarm payrolls increase. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California was the largest percentage increase, up 4.8 percent, followed by Orlando-Kissimee-Sanford, Florida, and Salt Lake City, Utah, which were up 3.7 percent.
Forty-nine large metro areas saw a decrease in unemployment over the course of the year, and the other two saw no change. Here are a few interesting specifics from the data.
1. Detroit, Michigan had the most improved unemployment data, down from 8.2 percent in September of 2014 to 5.7 percent in September 2015.
2. Salt Lake City, Utah had the lowest unemployment rates (3.1 percent) this past September out of all 51 large metro areas in the US.
3. Of the 51 metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million (according to 2010 census data) only two cities saw a decline in job opportunities compared with the year before – Richmond, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana.
For more information, or to see how your city fared, be sure to check out the full report from the Labor Department.
Tell Us What You Think
Do you think that your city’s economy has improved since last year? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.
The headline was about “unemployment” yet you drifted into the opposing subject of payroll increases in the Silicon Valley so readers have to re-read the article to comprehend if you were talking about an “increase” in unemployment in the Silicon Valley, when you were switching subjects and discussing higher payrolls in Sunnyvale, San Jose and Santa Clara. If you meant your article to be about lower unemployment rates I think you should have kept to that subject rather than switching… Read more »