The West is the Worst Region for Jobs ... Again

The unemployment situation across the United States changed very little in December, but the West is still the worst region to find a job, having the highest regional unemployment rate in the country at 10.9 percent, according to recently released numbers from the Department of Labor Statistics. The Pacific division continued to report the highest jobless rate, 11.6 percent in December.

The Northeast recorded the lowest unemployment rate, at 8.4 percent. The Midwest was the only region to experience a significant over-the-month unemployment rate change, down 0.3 percent. The good news is that two of the four regions registered significant rate changes from a year earlier: the Midwest, down 1.1 percent and the Northeast, down 0.6 percent. It isn't much of an improvement, but at least the numbers in those regions are headed in the right direction.