Unemployment in large U.S. metropolitan areas, June 2011

In June, of the 49 metropolitan areas with a Census 2000 population of 1 million or more, the highest unemployment rates registered in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California (14.2 percent) and Las Vegas-Paradise, Nevada (13.8 percent).

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Fifteen additional large areas posted rates of 10.0 percent or more.

The lowest jobless rate among the large areas was recorded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 5.7 percent, followed by Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Virginia-Maryland-West Virginia, 6.2 percent.

Thirty-nine of the large areas reported over-the-year unemployment rate decreases, while 10 areas registered rate increases. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nevada, experienced the largest unemployment rate decrease from June 2010 (−1.5 percentage points). Six other large areas reported rate decreases of at least 1.0 percentage point. The large area with the largest over-the-year jobless rate increase was Memphis, Tennessee-Mississippi-Arkansas (+0.9 percentage point).

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and are not seasonally adjusted. The most recent month's data are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment — June 2011" (HTML) (PDF).

• Metropolitan area employment in June 2011