01.29.2008 10:28 am
STL-area unemployment jumps in Dec.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The St. Louis-area unemployment rate lept again in December, according to numbers out this morning from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The metro area recorded a jobless rate of 5.4 percent for the month, up from 4.5 percent in December, 2006. It’s also up from 5.1 percent in November, 2007, though the numbers are not seasonally adjusted. The national average for December was 4.8 percent, up from 4.3 percent last year.
The region added 24,500 non-farm jobs over the year, a 1 percent increase, and the number of people filing for unemployment jumped by more than 12,000, from 66,900 to 79,200.
Nationwide, 277 out of 369 metro areas saw unemployment rise in December.
Read the full report (in pdf form) here.
