The cities with the lowest unemployment rates

A variety of factors contribute to our understanding regarding the current state of the economy. It's not a simple issue. One indicator stands out though as especially significant, at least as far as many working Americans are concerned: unemployment rates. And, this fall, it seems we've been getting some good news.

The Labor Department reported last month on the unemployment rates of the 51 metropolitan areas in the U.S. with a population greater than 1 million. In the last year, from September 2014 to September 2015, all but two saw nonfarm payrolls increase. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California was the largest percentage increase, up 4.8 percent, followed by Orlando-Kissimee-Sanford, Florida, and Salt Lake City, Utah, which were up 3.7 percent.

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Forty-nine large metro areas saw a decrease in unemployment over the course of the year, and the other two saw no change. Here are a few interesting specifics from the data.

1. Detroit, Michigan had the most improved unemployment data, down from 8.2 percent in September of 2014 to 5.7 percent in September 2015.

2. Salt Lake City, Utah had the lowest unemployment rates (3.1 percent) this past September out of all 51 large metro areas in the US.

3. Of the 51 metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million (according to 2010 census data) only two cities saw a decline in job opportunities compared with the year before – Richmond, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

For more information, or to see how your city fared, be sure to check out the full report from the Labor Department.

See how unemployment is currently affecting Americans:

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