February 8, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Odessa-Midland, Texas, had largest
unemployment rate increase during 1998
In December 1998, 66 of the 328 U.S.
metropolitan areas had higher unemployment rates than they had 12 months before.
Odessa-Midland, Texas—an oil extraction area—had the largest over-the-year
increase at 2.7 percentage points. In contrast, the National unemployment rate
declined 0.4 percentage point.
[Chart data—TXT]
Large unemployment rate increases were also experienced by San Angelo,
Texas (1.9 points), and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa (both 1.5
points). Three other areas had increases of at least 1.0 point.
At the end of 1998, the highest unemployment rates among metropolitan areas were in
Yuma, Arizona (20.0 percent), McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas (17.8 percent), and
Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, California (16.3 percent).
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 »
