Metropolitan Area Employment And Unemployment: October 2002 — 2002-11-27

In October, 194 metropolitan areas recorded higher unemployment rates than a year earlier, 117 areas had lower rates, and 20 areas had rates that were unchanged, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Among the nine metropolitan areas with rates of at least 10.0 percent, six were located in California's agricultural Central Valley and the remainder were along the Mexican border in other states. Thirty areas registered jobless rates below 3.0 percent, with 14 located in the Midwest and 10 in the South. The national unemployment rate in October was 5.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted, up from 5.0 percent a year earlier. Fifty-five metropolitan areas had jobless rates below 3.5 percent in October, down from 67 a year earlier, while 38 areas recorded unemployment rates of at least 6.5 percent, up slightly from 37 in October 2001.