Metropolitan Area                       4th quarter 2008               4th quarter 2009

El Centro, CA                                                25.7                                        30.2

Yuma, AZ                                                       18.3                                         24.2    

Yuba City, CA                                               14.6                                         17.7    

Merced, CA                                                    14.5                                         17.5

Modesto, CA                                                 13.2                                          16.1        

Visalia-Porterville, CA                             13.1                                          15.9

Hanford-Corcoran, CA                             12.3                                          14.9

Stockton, CA                                                 12.2                                         14.7 

Bakersfield, CA                                             11.7                                         14.1 

Redding, CA                                                  11.6                                          14.1

Flint, MI                                                         11.9                                          14.0 

Madera-Chowchilla, CA                           11.3                                          13.7 

Palm Coast, FL                                            11.0                                           13.6

Rocky Mount, NC                                      10.9                                          13.6 

Salinas, CA                                                   10.2                                          12.4 

Monroe, MI                                                 10.3                                          12.1

Muskegon-NortonShores, MI             10.2                                          12.0

Jackson, MI                                                10.1                                          11.9

Rockford, IL                                              10.0                                          11.8

A few observations:

1.  California is just about as dominant in unemployment statitstics as USC is in the PAC 10.

2.  What’s going on in Yuma, Arizona? The only Arizona area listed apeears very high on the list.  Oh well.  Go Cards!

3. Rocky Mount, North Carolina?  I thought everything wa fine in NC. 

4. The Midwest holds its own on the second half of this list.  Seems like someone warned us about Flint, Michigan.

5.  Notice that in every single area, things are getting worse.

Here’s the link: http://usmayors.org/77thWinterMeeting/documents/usmer-report-200901.pdf