July 1, 2022

The U.S Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that unemployment rates were lower in May 2022 than they were a year earlier in 385 of the 389 metropolitan areas, higher in 2, and unchanged in 2. Two locations had rates of at least 10%, and a total of 150 areas had rates of unemployment below 3%. In 122 metropolitan areas, nonfarm payroll employment increased over the course of the year, while it remained largely stable in 267 other regions. Not seasonally adjusted, the national unemployment rate in May 2022 fell from 5.5% to 3.4%.

Metropolitan Area Unemployment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

• The lowest unemployment rate of 1.3% in May 2022 were seen in Mankato-North Mankato, Minnesota, and Rochester, Minnesota, while the highest rate was 14.4% in Yuma, Arizona. 216 areas in total had May jobless rates below the US rate of 3.4%, while 150 regions had jobless rates higher than the national average of 3.4 percent and the national rate was matched in 23 locations.

• In May 2022, the largest decline in the unemployment rate since the start of the year was realized in El Centro, California (-5.6 percentage points).
• In an additional 13 regions, rates decreased during the year by at least 4.0 percentage points. No region saw an increase in the unemployment rate of more than 0.3 percentage points.
• Of the 51 metropolitan areas with a population of 1 million or more according to the 2010 Census, the lowest jobless rate of 1.6% in May was seen in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, while the highest rate of 5.5% was seen in Cleveland-Elyria, OH.
• All 51 large areas experienced reduction in the unemployment rate over the year, the highest of which was in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (-4.7 percentage points) and the lowest reduction occurred in Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN (-0.3 percentage point).

Metropolitan Division Unemployment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

• The 38 metropolitan divisions, which are individually identifiable as employment centers, are situated in the 11 of the most populated metropolitan areas.
• In May, all 38 metropolitan divisions had over-the-year unemployment rate decreases with Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA, having the largest rate decline (-5.0 percentage points) and the smallest rate declines occurring in Elgin, IL, and Lake County-Kenosha County, IL-WI (-0.3 percentage point and -0.4 point, respectively).
• Additionally, the lowest division unemployment rate of 1.8% occurred in San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA, and San Rafael, CA, closely followed by Nashua, NH-MA, 1.9%. The highest unemployment rate among the divisions of 6.1% was seen in Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, MI.

 Metropolitan Area Nonfarm Employment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

• In May, nonfarm payroll employment rose over the year in 122 metropolitan areas while remaining largely flat in 267. The areas with the highest annual employment gains were New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (+509,500), Los Angeles-Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (+294,700) and Long Beach-Anaheim, California (+306,800).
• The highest improvements in the employment rate over the year were seen in Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ (+12.5 percent), Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV (+9.0 percent), Hammonton, NJ (+12.5 percent), and Texas’s Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington region (+7.7%).
• In 44 metropolitan regions with a 2010 Census population of 1 million or more, nonfarm employment increased during the year, while employment in 7 places remained largely stable. In these large metropolitan regions, Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada (+9.0 percent), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (+7.7 percent), and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida (+7.3 percent) saw the biggest percentage increases in employment over the course of the year.

 Metropolitan Division Nonfarm Employment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

• In May, nonfarm payroll employment rose over the year in 27 metropolitan divisions while remaining largely flat in 11 divisions. The highest improvements in over-the-year employment among the metropolitan divisions occurred in New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ (+403,000), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA (+230,700), and Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX (+224,400).
• The highest over-the-year percentage increase in employment occurred in Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX (+8.2 percent), followed by San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA (+8.0 percent), and Camden, NJ, Fort Worth-Arlington, TX, and Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL (+6.5 percent each).

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