Is Your City More or Less Jobless?

It's no surprise that recently released numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 31 of the 32 metropolitan divisions in the US reported overall employment losses in 2009. What might come as a mildly pleasant surprise to some, however, is that one city area actually showed an employment increase over the year. That would be Bethesda-Frederick-Rockville, Maryland, which had an over-the-year increase of 3,100 jobs.

That might not sound like a lot to you, but the folks in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Illinois area would sure appreciate it. They experienced the biggest number of job losses, at 163,200. The next largest over-the-year employment losses were experienced by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, California (‑115,300), and New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. (‑103,500).