City Level Employment Data Reveals Divided America

City level unemployment rates vary widely across the US. What is driving these trends?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its metropolitan area unemployment data for June on Wednesday. Out of the almost 400 metropolitan areas tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), about half (178 cities) showed an increase in unemployment from the previous year.

The nationwide unemployment rate for June was 4.2%, however, there is significant variation within each city. There is also a slightly negative relationship between the unemployment rate and a city's workforce population, though, there is more variability in smaller cities.

Many rural areas have long struggled with higher unemployment and a slower growing economy. Larger cities are able to attract more industry and workers and for a long time, many rural areas have been losing population due to aging and migration. Rural areas also tend to have higher levels of poverty.

A few cities stand out for their extremes in employment.

Two small towns in South Dakota, Sioux Falls (1.9 percent) and Rapid city (2 percent), have the lowest unemployment rates in the country. The energy industry has been rapidly growing in South Dakota and high oil prices help to encourage more investment. The largest employment sectors in Sioux Falls are Education and Health Services (40.1 percent), Trade, Transportation and Utilities, and Leisure and Hospitality.

On the other end of the employment spectrum, Yuma and El Centro are two towns just north of the Mexico border above Baja California with very high unemployment rates, 16.5 percent and 17.6 percent respectively. In fact many of the borders towns in California, Arizona and Texas have been struggling with high unemployment.

For cities over 500 thousand workers, Raleigh has the lowest unemployment rate at 3.1 percent and Fresno California has the highest as 7.7 percent.