The BLS reports rising unemployment rates vs a year ago in 75 percent of metro areas.
Please consider the Metropolitan Areas Unemployment January 2025.
Metro Area Key Stats
- Unemployment rates were higher in January than a year earlier in 290 of the 387 metropolitan areas, lower in 64 areas, and unchanged in 33 areas, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
- A total of 18 areas had jobless rates of less than 3.0 percent and 11 areas had rates of at least 8.0 percent.
- Nonfarm payroll employment increased over the year in 38 metropolitan areas, decreased in 1 area, and was essentially unchanged in 348 areas.
- The national unemployment rate in January was 4.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted, up from 4.1 percent a year earlier.
Percentage Changes in Metro Area Employment
- 89.9 percent of metro areas had “essentially unchanged” nonfarm payroll employment.
- Only 9.8 percent metro areas had increased nonfarm payroll employment.
- Over the year, nonfarm employment increased in 13 metropolitan areas with a 2020 Census population of 1 million or more and was essentially unchanged in 43 areas.
Unemployment Rate by State
The above numbers are seasonally adjusted. The report lists unadjusted numbers.
Highest Unadjusted Numbers
- Michigan: 5.9%
- D.C.: 5.6%
- California: 5.5%
- Alaska: 5.5%
- Kentucky: 5.5%
- Oregon: 5.4%
- Ohio: 5.3%
- Colorado: 5.0%
- Illinois: 5.0%
Congrats to South Dakota at 2.1 percent. Hawaii is 2.7 percent. No other states were below 3.0 percent.
Nebraska is 3.2 percent, North Dakota is 3.1 percent, Utah is 3.2 percent.
Employment Drops by 588,000 as Jobs Increase by Weaker Than Expected 151,000
On March 7, I noted Employment Drops by 588,000 as Jobs Increase by Weaker Than Expected 151,000
Beneath a weak headline jobs number, the details are even weaker.
23 months ago full-time employment was 134.4 million. It’s now 134.7 million, up by about 300,000. Nonfarm payrolls are reportedly up over 4 million in the same timeframe.
Total full-time work dropped by 1.22 million.
Every number is suspect. Only the QCEW and BED reports based on over 90 percent of the data are accurate.
Related Posts
January 31, 2025: The BLS Confirms US is Now Losing Jobs in Net Business Creation
The BLS BED [Business Employment Dynamics] report provides further confirmation the BLS Birth/Death jobs model is seriously screwed up.
February 4, 2025: Job Openings Drop by 556,000 in December, Quits Show Job Finding Stress
Job openings have collapsed. And the number of quits confirms people are staying put.
February 7, 2025: Huge BLS Benchmark Revisions Remove 610,000 Jobs From 2024
Every February the BLS does annual benchmark revisions for the prior year. This year there were huge revisions.
The first link above on BED is a key item.
The Birth-Death model that feeds the monthly jobs report is bogus. It has been screwed up since Covid, first underreporting jobs then overreporting them.
Just call it a recession.
That map is interesting for what it shows. Big Democrat states with unions all have the higher unemployment rates.
The shift of work to Red states continues unabated.
If your industry requires cheap, dumb labor, red states are made for you.
Expensive labor prices itself out of a job. I worked on the TV show MacGyver. Second season the production moved to Canada, to save costs. Alberta was made for Hollywood to move production to, as Netflix has done.
Red states in search of low wage, slave labor. Bless their hearts!
Don’t blue states support illegal immigration under the argument of cheap wages and therefore prices? How is that different?
Ah yes, those big Democratic states like Ohio, Kentucky and um… Alaska.
The shift of taxpayers to red states continues.
“Congrats to South Dakota at 2.1 percent.”
Except the housing prices there have gotten ridiculous because of the economic growth and in-migration.
Workmen coming in to add Trump to Mount Rushmore causing housing to skyrocket?
Getting around to finishing Crazy Horse.
In-migration where, lol?
Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Spearfish, to name a few. Population up 20% or more in the last 10 years.
Since Doug took us off topic….breaking news: Trump to announce auto tariffs at 4pm today.
Talk about tariffs! I could tell you a personal horror story about tariffs that happened to me today.
And why do you assume my name is Doug? My name could be 78.
They will be rescinded by 6pm. Just trying to get the Signal blunder out of the news cycle.
I know it’s off topic but for anyone interested I found the list of grants terminated on Dr Peter Woit’s blog “Not Even Wrong” at Columbia. It lists the grants by institution, by amount of money and by the name of the grant terminated. There are some interesting grants. Maybe a topic for future posts or maybe not. You can find it here:
https://taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data/HHS_Grants_Terminated.pdf
My apologies for going off topic.
Oh the horror, “Understanding the Regional Ecology of a Future HIV Vaccine”
God forbid we get a vaccine or cure for HIV.
And this terrible idea, “Creation of an Institutional Biobanking Facility”
Way to go Trump, we’ll all be sicker and biobankless.
I put it there so people could read it and you did so you fulfilled your purpose if not in life at least in my purpose for you, which is to make comments on what I write. You may now give me a thumbs up.
Regional ecology and HIV vaccine seem to be unrelated given that HIV is a human specific disease unless someone was expecting it to kill a Black Death like proportion of the population.
Steve Kirsch recently interviewed Dr. Robert Hooker and it was mentioned that there have been 9 peer reviewed studies, vaxxed vs completely unvaxxed. All 9 determined that the unvaxxed were healthier.
Strong durable goods number this morning. Didn’t expect that.