Unemployment: The Worst-Hit States In July (MAP)

The state-by-state unemployment numbers didn't change too much from June to July, the government announced on Friday. Fifteen states still have jobless rates above 10 percent, down from 16 in June.

The government announced two weeks ago that the national unemployment rate fell from 9.5 to 9.4 percent, although that may have been a statistical aberration.

Michigan continues to lead the nation in unemployment, with a rate of 15 percent, down from 15.2 percent in June. Rhode Island came in second at 12.7 percent (up from 12.4), followed by Nevada at 12.5 percent (up from 11.9). The largest increases occurred in Wyoming and Arizona, where unemployment rose from 5.9 to 6.5 percent and from 8.7 to 9.2 percent, respectively. Seventeen states saw their unemployment rates decline from June to July.

Here's a chart from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the damage.

www.huffingtonpost.com...


This is based on the official numbers. The true numbers are probably much higher and scarier but you know they don't want to alarm anyone or waken anyone from this dream state.



[edit on 21-8-2009 by warrenb]

That's the thing that is horrible about using Unemployment Insurance Eligibility to determine the number of Unemployed. Those that are ineligible because they were fired, discharged, quit, or used up their Unemployment Benefits, are not counted. Only those actually receiving Benefits are counted towards the Unemployment Rate.

I think it would be far more realistic to take the number of Working Adults in the State and compare it to the number actually Working to calculate how many are truly out of work and Unemployed.

I can tell you that Nevada has a pretty bleak future right now. There are many homeless here many of them recent homeless. Reno is pretty bad right now..Work is quite scarce.

Nice map. Thanks for posting. I can certainly say that we are hurting here in Ohio. In fact, the greater Columbus area is finally starting to feel the whack. That region has been sacred ground for unemployment up until now.

I think its time to move to the heart of the Great Plains States. Nebraska isn't to shabby these days.

[edit on 21-8-2009 by jibeho]

Lexington area of KY is pretty bad. I've been unemployed pretty much all year, except for April. I know of others who are searching too. There's not much here. There are a handful of jobs advertised, many of them scams, and the few that are legit have probably hundreds or thousands of applicants.

Originally posted by warrenb

The government announced two weeks ago that the national unemployment rate fell from 9.5 to 9.4 percent, although that may have been a statistical aberration.

I was currious about what the U-6 showed for that same time period. Here is what I found. I've also included the link if you want to see "all" the data, since I couldn't edit it correctly for viewablity here on the forums.

BLS Website

The U-3 numbers are the ones they use for "public consumption" on the MSM. However, the U-6 numbers are much more accurate. As far as the "seasonally adjusted" tbh I don't really know what that means. Maybe some have salt and some don't? ()

Not Seasonally Adjusted -- June 2009 -- July 2009
Measure
U-3 -- 9.7 ---- 9.7
U-6 -- 16.8 ---- 16.8

Seasonally Adjusted -- June 2009 - July 2009
Measure
U-3 -- 9.5 ---- 9.4
U-6 -- 16.5 ---- 16.3

However, as can be seen by the U-6 numbers, the did not change at all under the "Not Seasonally Adjusted" while under the "Seasonally Adjusted" there was a .2% drop.

Either way you look at it. "REAL" unemployment is still above 16%.

California is 11.9%, the highest the state has ever been.

It gives pause to see a state such as Michigan, home of the auto industry--the "backbone of the American economy" with an "official" unemployment rate over 15%. My girlfriend's father, an engineer with 20+ years with the same firm, was recently laid off.

Of course, these "official" numbers are artificially low. As a previous poster noted, the numbers only count some without work. For example, I was contracted to General Motors to promote one of their since-eliminated lines. Pontiac was cancelled, and so was my position. Being a contracted worker, however, I did not qualify for being officially "unemployed" in Michigan, even though the pay I received for my services was certainly enough to live on.

I have since relocated to the Phoenix area, and it's tough here, as well. Compared to Detroit, however, this is El Dorado. So to speak.

My area is getting pretty bad. Yet I hear it is going to get better. Hopefully... all the production jobs are just not there anymore... either laying off like crazy or moving away. I don't understand to much but a lot of the places are moving to non union places I've heard. I dunno, but it's hard just to find a job at McDonald's right now.

Ahhh Michigan and the mid-western states (which have or should I say...used to have a lot of manufacturing) how did those unions work out for you guys?

Before you answer you might want to go look at China.

reply to post by projectvxn


Good thing I moved out of Reno last year, after being laid off. :p

Originally posted by PenandSword
Ahhh Michigan and the mid-western states (which have or should I say...used to have a lot of manufacturing) how did those unions work out for you guys?

...they worked out just as well as arrogant and greedy corporations did.

Before you answer you might want to go look at China.

Oh, you mean where the corporatocracy sold its soul?

C'mon, big thinker. The working man is hardly the only bad guy here. And before you slam them further, remember who built the tanks, bombers, et. al for the American armed forces during WWII.



[edit on 8.21.2009 by ItsTheQuestion]

With some exceptions, manufacturing is all but gone in the United States. it's over, and done. I don't think it will ever come back.. Anyone who used to work in manufacturing knows what I'm talking about. When you lose your job, you better get some training being something in the medical field, because finding a job in the manufacturing field is impossible.
The United States need to concentrate on something that has a future, which is the food industry. The US has the ability if it wants to, to still be the breadbasket to the world. Even with droughts, which have been happening forever, we can still produce a bumper crop of sellable food products, that have a marketable value on the world market. We can actually produce something that people need, and want. I don't know what the problem is.
The simple fact is, that no ammount of government money is going to create a job. Business needs to create jobs. But if no jobs are created we will never crawl out of the hole we are in. The sad fact is that the whole economic world is rigged by the people that run the banking system. Our government continues to give our tax dollars to industries that have a failing businesss model, and allow bonuses to be given to corporate officials who caused the companies to go broke in the first place. The excuse of "we need to attract the top talent to get us out of bankruptcy". The top talent were the ones that got them there in the first place. Sounds like they need some new talent to me.
The whole system is set to fall, and it will happen soon. No ammount of government "good news" is going to change that. We will soon see...

how does this compare to the early 1980s? i don't think it is worse now than it was back then. the main difference is that we can now blame China and other countries or immigrants for "stealing" jobs...

Originally posted by PenandSword
Ahhh Michigan and the mid-western states (which have or should I say...used to have a lot of manufacturing) how did those unions work out for you guys?

Before you answer you might want to go look at China.

yeah blame the unions. i'm no fan of them but to blame them is no solution. there's been a lot of union waste (aka "don't pick this up we need to put in a ticket for someone to come and grab it") but what really sunk the big 3 were those rising healthcare costs and pensions. without unions most of us would still work in sweatshops just like china and get paid $.25 a day! the problem with china is a lack of decent trade agreements which would force them to conform to the 5 day workweek (instead of 6 day they have now) and decent work conditions & pay for workers. that would level the field and stop the bleed of jobs.

how can the big 3 (or any american company) compete against foreign companies that have no healthcare costs and no pension costs because both are paid for by the state? sure they are taxed overseas but since they don't have the parasitic private healthcare bureaucracy and the need to reward shareholders of the private health insurance corporations the costs are quite a bit lower! what's the value added by health insurance corporations to make them eligible for profit out of pushing papers and arguing with you why you don't need that CT scan? how much time could doctor's offices save by eliminating the need to process those claims? and finally how much time and how many lives would be saved by having a national healthcare database/national health ID card? ever transferred from a doctor belonging to one hospital to a specialist from another hospital? it can take weeks until your file is shipped, that can be precious time you waste when disease is progressing!

if you fix healthcare (and that includes some tort reform too) you fix the job market.

[edit on 21-8-2009 by DarkSecret]

reply to post by warrenb

You can add 60-75% to the unemployment number per state and heres why;
Not only are the ineligible, fired or quit, not working and not being counted, the Illegals-those who just stopped looking for work and the employees who were given severence pay are also not counted so yes, I'm afraid it is a lot worse than they are telling us about. Plus I'm sure there are a couple of other categories of unemployed I have not remembered. KMG

so what are you guys doing to create jobs in your local economy besides look for one? i have an idea that can create jobs. are any investors on this website seeking to create a social networking group for people like us to create jobs/feed and place? if not why?

What a time for me to graduate with my Bachelors, and I'm trying to find a job closer to my girlfriend...sure I have a [crappy] job right now [CVS/Pharmacy is evil] but I need a higher paying job near my girlfriend, who lives in the bay area...apartment prices [2bdrm] where I live, 900/month...where she lives 1400/month
I haven't had a single interview or call back in months...

NW GA is horrid.
And one thing these maps don't mention is the salary cuts.
We have 50% of our friends out of work and about 30% of the ones working have taken HUGE salary cuts - some 50% or more for doing professional level jobs. In some cases, the companies seem to have plenty of work, but are taking advantage of the dismal job market. They know employees can't just quit and go some place else.

Christmas bonuses are gone, and there's places - several I could name right off - that have cut salaries 30-50% My husband's boss was making 70k - now he's making 35k! The cuts are company wide. There's nothing the employees can really do.

Unemployment versus the reality. When the big companies offshored their facilities, they thought they would crop in huge savings and profits due to lower expenditures, yet what they didnt realize that the huge consumption was at home, not where the manufacturing took place. By offshoring they sent overseas also the expertize and highly skilled and paid jobs. Once you send overseas a GM facility it also eliminates thousands of 35bucks an hour jobs. those people were automatically stripped away from a possibility to purchase homes ,decent cars etc. of course, most of them adopted and took other jobs, yet what happened most of those jobs were lower qualification and less paid. By offshoring Gm it is not only the Flint factories that needed to be closed, it is also the net of suppliers, Visteon, Delphi, Good year etc. that had to shrink to anorexic sizes. And if you ork for Walmart the emplyoer simply doesn`t need to pay you much, for your job doesn`t require any skills, and to find a substitute for your position is easy.