October 3, 2011 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Metropolitan area unemployment rates comparison, August 2011

Metropolitan area unemployment rate comparisons, versus prior year and U.S. unemployment rate, August 2011, not seasonally adjusted
Comparison	Number of areas (p)
Metropolitan area unemployment rates compared to U.S. unemployment rate of 9.1 percent (August 2011)
Below	217
Above	149
Equal	6
Metropolitan area unemployment rates compared to prior year unemployment rate (August 2010)
Higher	84
Lower	262
Unchanged	26
Footnotes: (p) = preliminary

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