St. Louis jobless rate highest since at least 1990

In Wednesday’s paper, we had a story about new unemployment figures showing the jobless rate in the St. Louis area at 6.9 percent.

That’s pretty high.

But today, we got new data that irons out the seasonal variations in that unemployment number. And it climbed even higher: 7.2 percent. That’s the highest rate since at least January, 1990, when they started tracking unemployment rate in metropolitan areas.

That 7.2 percent figure comes from St. Louis Federal Reserve economist Howard Wall, who adjusts the local data to account for seasonal variations and allow more accurate month-to-month comparisons. His figures show joblessness in St. Louis climbing steadily over the last year.

Oct. 2007: 5.6

Nov. 2007: 5.5

Dec. 2007: 5.9

Jan. 2008: 5.9

Feb. 2008: 5.7

March 2008: 6.4

April 2008: 5.7

May 2008: 6.5

June 2008: 6.0

July 2008: 6.8

Aug. 2008: 7.0

Sept. 2008: 7.0

Oct. 2008: 7.2