Birmingham, Alabama, posts lowest jobless rate among large US metro areas

The Birmingham metropolitan area in Alabama posted the lowest jobless rate in May among all large, US metropolitan areas with more than 1 million in population, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Birmingham’s jobless rate was just 2.6%. The second-lowest was Salt Lake City at 2.8%.

Los Angeles posted the highest unemployment rate among all metros in May at 9.1%. It was followed by the Las Vegas metro area at 8.9%. However, the BLS noted all 51 of the largest US metro area recorded lower jobless rates on a year-over-year basis in May, and Las Vegas had one of the biggest drops, falling 19.2 percentage points. The largest drop was in the Detroit metro area; its jobless rate fell 20.2 percentage points year over year in May to 4.6%.

Among metro area of all sizes, the Burlington-South Burlington, Vermont, metro area had the lowest jobless rate at 1.2% in May; the second-lowest was in Manchester, New Hampshire, at 1.4%. The metro area with the highest jobless rate was Yuma, Arizona, at 17.0% in May.

The original article can be found at: Staffing Industry Analysts