Technical information:
  Employment:   (202) 691-6559       USDL 08-0585
       http://www.bls.gov/sae/
  Unemployment: (202) 691-6392
       http://www.bls.gov/lau/       For release:  10:00 A.M. (EDT)
Media contact:  (202) 691-5902       Tuesday, April 29, 2008


        METROPOLITAN AREA EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT:  MARCH 2008

   Unemployment rates were higher in March than a year earlier in
309 of the 369 metropolitan areas, lower in 40 areas, and unchanged
in 20 areas, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department
of Labor reported today.  Fourteen areas, 12 of which are located in
California, recorded jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent, while
9 areas registered rates below 3.0 percent.  The national unemploy-
ment rate in March was 5.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted, up from
4.5 percent a year earlier.

Metropolitan Area Unemployment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

   In March, 45 metropolitan areas reported unemployment rates of at
least 7.0 percent, up from 26 areas a year earlier, while 69 areas
recorded rates below 4.0 percent, down from 128 areas in March 2007.
Two  agricultural areas in California again registered the highest
rates in March:  El Centro, 16.4 percent, and Merced, 13.7 percent.
Iowa City, Iowa, and Midland, Texas, posted the lowest jobless rates,
2.6 percent each.  Overall, 193 areas recorded unemployment rates below
the U.S. figure of 5.2 percent, 163 areas had higher rates, and 13 areas
had the same rate.  (See table 1.)

   Two Florida areas, Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, registered
the largest unemployment rate increases from a year earlier (+3.0 and 
+2.9 percentage points, respectively).  Twenty-one additional areas re-
corded rate increases of 2.0 percentage points or more, and another
96 areas had increases of 1.0 to 1.9 points.  Two Oklahoma areas, Lawton
and Oklahoma City, reported the only jobless rate decreases of 1.0 per-
centage point or more in March (-1.2 and -1.1 points, respectively).

   Of the 49 metropolitan areas with a Census 2000 population of 1 mil-
lion or more, Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich., continued to record the high-
est unemployment rate, 8.1 percent in March.  The areas posting the next
highest rates were Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., 7.1 percent,
and Providence-Fall River-Warwick, R.I.-Mass., 6.9 percent.  Oklahoman City,
Okla., reported the lowest jobless rate among the large areas, 3.3 percent.
Seven additional large areas had rates below 4.0 percent.  Forty-four large
areas recorded higher unemployment rates than in March 2007, three posted
lower rates, and two had no change.  Among the large areas, Riverside-San
Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., had the largest over-the-year jobless rate in-
crease (+1.9 percentage points), followed by Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater,
Fla. (+1.5 points).  Nineteen additional large areas reported rate increases
of 1.0 percentage point or more.  Oklahoma City, Okla., registered the larg-
est unemployment rate decrease from a year earlier (-1.1 percentage points).
No other large area had a rate decrease greater than 0.2 percentage point.



                                   - 2 -



Metropolitan Division Unemployment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

   Eleven of the most populous metropolitan areas are composed of 34 metro-
politan divisions, which are essentially separately identifiable employment
centers.  In March, the division with the highest unemployment rate again was
Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich., 9.1 percent.  Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills,
Mich., and Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, Mass.-N.H., recorded the next highest rates,
7.5 and 7.3 percent, respectively.  Bethesda-Frederick-Gaithersburg, Md., con-
tinued to report the lowest jobless rate among the divisions, 2.7 percent.
Five additional divisions registered rates below 4.0 percent.  (See table 2.)

   In March, 27 of the 34 metropolitan divisions recorded over-the-year unem-
ployment rate increases, 2 had rate decreases, and 5 had rates unchanged from
a year earlier. The division with the largest jobless rate increase was West
Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, Fla. (+1.5 percentage points).  Six addi-
tional divisions reported rate increases of 1.0 percentage point or more.  No
division registered a jobless rate decline from March 2007 greater than 0.2
percentage point.

   In 7 of the 11 metropolitan areas that contain divisions, the ranges between
the highest and lowest division jobless rates were 1.0 percentage point or more
in March.  The metropolitan area that had the largest rate difference among its
divisions, 3.5 percentage points, was Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H.
(Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, Mass.-N.H., 7.3 percent, compared with Framingham,
Mass., 3.8 percent).

Metropolitan Area Nonfarm Employment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

   Among the 310 metropolitan areas for which nonfarm payroll data were avail-
able in March, 221 metropolitan areas recorded over-the-year increases in non-
farm payroll employment, 82 reported decreases, and 7 had no change.  The larg-
est over-the-year employment increase was posted in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown,
Texas (+80,100), followed by New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-
N.J.-Pa. (+65,500), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (+58,200), and Seattle-
Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash. (+35,700).  The largest over-the-year percentage increases
in employment were reported in Pascagoula, Miss. (+13.9 percent),  Coeur d'Alene,
Idaho (+5.7 percent), Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, Wash., and Odessa, Texas (+5.2 per-
cent each), and Grand Junction, Colo. (+4.4 percent).  (See table 3.)

   The largest over-the-year decrease in employment occurred in Detroit-Warren-
Livonia, Mich. (-45,300), followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif.
(-35,300), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. (-21,700), Miami-Fort
Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla. (-20,800), Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.
(-17,300), Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. (-13,900), and Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice,
Fla. (-13,200).  The largest over-the-year percentage decrease in employment was
recorded in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. (-5.8 percent), followed by Flint, Mich.,
and Naples-Marco Island, Fla. (-5.3 percent each), Blacksburg-Christiansburg-
Radford, Va. (-4.8 percent), Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Fla. (-4.3 percent), and
Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, Mich. (-3.5 percent).

   Over the year, nonfarm employment increased in 27 of the 38 metropolitan areas
with annual average employment levels above 750,000 in 2007.  The largest over-
the-year percentage increases in employment in these large metropolitan areas were
reported in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas (+3.2 percent), Austin-Round Rock,
Texas (+2.9 percent), San Antonio, Texas (+2.3 percent), Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue,
Wash. (+2.1 percent), and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (+2.0 percent). Among
the large areas, the largest over-the-year percentage decreases were reported in
Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich. (-2.3 percent), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario,
Calif. (-1.7 percent), Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. (-1.3 percent), Miami-
Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla. (-0.8 percent), and Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor,
Ohio, and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif. (-0.6 percent each).



                                   - 3 -



Metropolitan Division Nonfarm Employment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

   Nonfarm payroll employment data were available in March 2008 for 32 metropoli-
tan divisions, which are essentially separately identifiable employment centers
within a metropolitan area.  Twenty of the 32 metropolitan divisions reported
over-the-year increases in employment, 11 reported losses, and 1 had no change.
The largest over-the-year increases in nonfarm employment for the metropolitan
divisions occurred in New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. (+52,200), Dallas-
Plano-Irving, Texas (+40,800), Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash. (+29,400), Boston-
Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H. (+24,200), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-
Md.-W.Va.(+23,900), and San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif. (+20,200).
The largest over-the-year declines in nonfarm employment were recorded in Detroit-
Livonia-Dearborn, Mich. (-28,000), Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif. (-21,700),
Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich. (-17,300), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale,
Calif. (-13,600), and Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla. (-9,800).
(See table 4.)

   The largest over-the-year percentage increases in employment among the metro-
politan divisions were reported in Tacoma, Wash. (+2.3 percent); San Francisco-
San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif. (+2.1 percent); and Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas;
Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas; and Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash. (+2.0 percent
each).  The largest over-the-year percentage declines in employment among metro-
politan divisions were seen in Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich. (-3.6 percent),
Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich. (-1.5 percent), Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine,
Calif. (-1.4 percent), West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, Fla. (-1.3 per-
cent), and Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla. (-1.2 percent).


                      ______________________________


   The Regional and State Employment and Unemployment release for April is sche-
duled to be issued on Friday, May 16.  The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unem-
ployment release for April is scheduled to be issued on Wednesday, May 28.





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       |                                                                   |
       |                       Hurricane Katrina                           |
       |                                                                   |
       |     For March, BLS and its state partners continued to make       |
       |modifications to the usual estimation procedures for the LAUS      |
       |program to reflect the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the labor    |
       |force statistics in affected areas.  These modifications included: |
       |(1) modifying the state population controls to account  for dis-   |
       |placement due to Katrina; (2) developing labor force estimates for |
       |the New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner metropolitan area using an alter-  |
       |native to the model-based method; and (3) not publishing labor     |
       |force estimates for the months immediately following the hurricane |
       |for the parishes within the New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner metropoli- |
       |tan area or cities within those parishes, where the quality of in- |
       |put data was severely compromised by the hurricane.                |
       |                                                                   |
       |   For more information on LAUS procedures and estimates for       |
       |March 2008, see Hurricane Information:  Katrina and Rita on the    |
       |BLS Web site at http://www.bls.gov/Katrina/home.htm or call        |
       |(202) 691-6392.                                                    |
       |                                                                   |
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