Unemployment Map

[Alex]

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Link sent to me by Andy, an animated map showing the spread of unemployment since January 2007.

[Truvelo]

Why do the Dakotas and Nebraska have low unemployment? I thought these areas were relatively poor.

[Brandon]

Why do the Dakotas and Nebraska have low unemployment? I thought these areas were relatively poor.

They may be poor, but most are employed in something.  Poverty and unemployment do not necessarily go hand-in-hand.

[corco]

People still need food- those areas are largely farming areas- not much manufacturing. Farmers will always have jobs

[J N Winkler]

Farmers also get agricultural subsidies, so they are somewhat insulated from boom-and-bust cycles in the commodity markets.

[mightyace]

And, many farm related jobs don't necessarily pay a lot.

Plus, even with subsidies, many farmers just squeak by.

[Stephane Dumas]

For North Dakota, with the study of the Bakken shale who contains lots of oil and perhaps as well natural gas, ND might have a big boom coming, the Bakken shale also spead to Montana and in Canada in Saskatchewan

[Chris]

It's spreading like a disease...

9% is high unemployment, I think the Netherlands is only at 4.5%. Only one country in Europe managed to get economic growth in 2009: Poland +1.7%

[Scott5114]

If I remember the national unemployment rate is above 10%. It should start coming down soon though, as the economy is beginning to recover. The unemployment rate is unfortunately one of the last things to turn around. It takes time for people who have the power to hire to realize "Hey! I have piles of money here, and I can't fulfill demand! I need more people!"

[SP Cook]

There are zero signs the economy is "recovering" at all. 

As to "farm country", farms and farmers are not included in employment statistics from the Labor Department, but are in an entirely different statistical measure from the Ag Department.  So thus the doing really well counties in the agricultural midwest have very small payroll bases in the first place.  Very rural places with very few wage earners (maybe one or two stores in general retail, the folks at the courthouse, feedstore, grain elevator, phone company and such, and that is it).

[froggie]

Stephane hinted at it, but North Dakota is increasingly becoming an energy production area.  It should also be noted that they are one of the few states not facing major budget deficites.

[vdeane]

There are zero signs the economy is "recovering" at all. 

You're getting confused over the whole wall street vs main street part of the economy.  All the official indicators of how the economy is doing are based on wall street and don't factor main street at all, so the economy can technically be doing well while the common people suffer.  This makes sense, because most of the people who keep track of this stuff make their money off of the financial system rather than wages.

[Chris]

There are zero signs the economy is "recovering" at all.  

Not at all? I see unemployment stabilizing, export increasing, companies are laying off less people than last year, inflation remains stable, housing prices stabilize, consumer spending doesn't drop anymore. At least it doesn't seem to be worsening. The American economy grew 5.7% in Q3 2009. Consumer spending increased 2% as well.

[74/171FAN]

There are zero signs the economy is "recovering" at all. 

Not at all? I see unemployment stabilizing, export increasing, companies are laying off less people than last year, inflation remains stable, housing prices stabilize, consumer spending doesn't drop anymore. At least it doesn't seem to be worsening. The American economy grew 5.7% in Q3 2009. Consumer spending increased 2% as well.

Unemployment in January actually went down to 9.7% from 10% as well.

[shoptb1]

There are zero signs the economy is "recovering" at all.  

From a macroeconomic standpoint, we are definitely seeing signs of recovery.  Of course, there's historically a lag between the macro-turnaround point and the state/local economic bounce.  As I recall, most economists were pointing towards 2011 as the year that unemployment might start to recede...but news from January 2010 is already showing signs of that.  Of course, Americans are completely impatient, and it's hard to be patient if you're one of the people that can't find a job.  The recovery process won't be fast, but I think we're beginning to head back out of this rut. 

[mightyace]

There are zero signs the economy is "recovering" at all.  

From a macroeconomic standpoint, we are definitely seeing signs of recovery.  Of course, there's historically a lag between the macro-turnaround point and the state/local economic bounce.

And, as always, some areas do better or worse than others.

For example, if the city you live in depended on a big Chrysler or GM plant that just closed, things are going to stink long after overall recovery has happened.

And similarly, the housing market in Nashville is doing much better than most of the country due to continued growth.  Even the near total shutdown of the former Saturn plant in Spring Hill just seems to be slowing things down a bit.