February 1999 — 1999-03-31

In February, 202 metropolitan areas had unemployment rates below the U.S. average (4.7 percent, not seasonally adjusted), while 114 areas had higher rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Of the seven metropolitan areas with rates below 2.0 percent, four were located in the South and three were in the Midwest. Of the 12 areas with jobless rates of 10.0 percent or more, 8 were in California. Metropolitan area unemployment rates ranged from 1.1 percent in Charlottesville, Va., to 19.8 percent in Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, Calif. Sixty-five metropolitan areas reported unemployment rates below 3.0 percent in February, while 61 areas recorded rates of 6.0 percent or higher. (See table 1 and the chart. Data for the areas in Missouri were not available at the time of release.) Over the year, 206 metropolitan areas registered jobless rate decreases equaling or exceeding the 0.3 percentage point decline in the national rate.