Posted on 01/23/2012 8:31:09 PM PST by Olog-hai
Vicious cycles of debt and irresponsible lending helped to cause the Great Recession, and now another vicious cycle of housing weakness and unemployment is keeping many cities from recovering.
Of the 10 metropolitan areas with the toughest job situations, seven are in California. Cities in the Golden State, as well as in Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, have suffered greatly from falling housing prices and high unemployment. These places saw skyrocketing home prices during the housing bubble. After it became clear that many buyers had purchased homes well out of their price range and the market collapsed, many of those houses went vacant.
Among U.S. metropolitan areas with 200,000 people or more, here are the 10 worst metro areas for finding a job.
Metro Area | Unemployment Rate, Nov. 2011 | Y-Y Change |
---|---|---|
1. Merced, Calif. | 16.9 | -1.7 |
2. Fresno, Calif. | 15.7 | -1.7 |
3. Modesto, Calif. | 15.5 | -1.7 |
4. Stockton, Calif. | 15.5 | -2.3 |
5. Visalia-Porterville, Calif. | 15 | -1.8 |
6. Atlantic City-Hammonton, N.J. | 12.4 | 0.1 |
7. Bakersfield-Delano, Calif. | 13.4 | -2.2 |
8. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C. | 11.7 | -0.7 |
9. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. | 12.5 | -2.0 |
10. Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas | 11.2 | -0.5 |
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Except for Riverside-San Bernardino, all of the California cities are in the Central Valley of California with mainly agricultural economies and large numbers of very poor farm workers. This isn’t a great time to be a farm worker.
How’s the hyper-liberalism, lack of border enforcement and high taxes working out for you, California?
Yeah, especially when the government turns off the water with the excuse that it’s for some little fish.
“Except for Riverside-San Bernardino, all of the California cities are in the Central Valley of California with mainly agricultural economies and large numbers of very poor farm workers. This isnt a great time to be a farm worker.”
You have to wonder how they roll up the unemployment statistics since the Central Valley is illegals from Mexico and all points South central.
While our hot-shot Attorney General files lawsuits over plastic bottles.
“Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Sues Plastic Water Bottle Companies over Misleading Claims of Biodegradability”
http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2577
A significant amount of the rural unemployment in California is from the decision to cut the water supply to agriculture in order to increase the river flow and preserve an endangered fish, whose name I have forgotten.
However, even before that, those areas of the Central Valley had high unemployment due to seasonal unemployment of farm labor.
Ironically, when my brother was a skilled nursing facility manager in the Central Valley, he had to hire foreign workers in his medical jobs because there were not enough locals who had the training for being nurses aides and such. I know he was involved with trying to get a training/certification program implemented, to eventually fill the positions with local people, but I don’t know how far he got on it before retirement.
Not everyone is liberal here. The John Birch Society was founded in southern California. Unfortunately we DO have Boxer and Feinstein...but we DON'T have Hitlery, and those two crumbbums from New York. Face it, no state is perfect, so what is your problem with California?
We are the 8th largest economy in the world, and have 38 million people, so we must be doing SOMETHING right.
Why the animus against California? We are all ONE country, aren't we? Or are you from Arkansas? Hope, Ark., home of the former Commander-in-briefs? :o):o)
Those not familiar with the state, probably have no clue of that.
True, but if you were a delta smelt, you are one happy fish. Absolutely amazing how far over the edge we have gone without all hell breaking loose.
I'm aware that Atlantic City-Hammonton, N.J. is basically a one industry town, gambling and tourism, which has lost its luster as so many casinos have opened in places like Pennsylvania and New York, which once provided a lot of their visitors.
But does anyone know why Hickory, N.C. is on the list?
Not to worry, our alleged governor is proposing even greater increases in taxes on the wealthiest among us in order to solve the problem.
Surely these one percenters will be happy to pay their "fair share", and would not even consider a move from the Golden State...
(putting their properties up for sale, taking their buying $$$, and their businesses, and leaving their former employees without work, n'est ce pas?)
.
I remember that. The fish in question is the delta smelt. Most likely related to some other species of smelt; our "scientists" claim that it lives only in the San Joaquin Delta, and that its one-year life cycle makes it "susceptible" to their alleged climate changes. I never trust scientists on matters like this; it was scientists that insisted on culling African elephants because they thought it would save the trees and jungles, but it turns out that the elephants' instinctual uprooting of trees was helping along the new growth and the pseudoscientists were harming the very thing they were trying to protect!
A significant amount of the rural unemployment in California is from the decision to cut the water supply to agriculture in order to increase the river flow and preserve an endangered fish, whose name I have forgotten
I’ve lived in Villa Park, Anaheim Hills, Fullerton, Santa Rosa, Calistoga, Jacoby Creek, Arcata and Eureka...and my family lives in Palm Springs.
I’ve earned my attitude!
But I still want to come back and retire behind the Redwood Curtain. I miss it more than anything.
I never had a hard time finding a good job in Des Moines, Iowa or Dallas/Ft Worth, Texas.
Small-town America is getting KILLED in this depression.
The factories are gone to China and Mexico, and the Obama regime has killed any hope of bringing new ones in.
The government is even killing the small-town banks.
Is that still in Texas?
.
“Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C.”
The furniture capitol of the SE until the mill operators sent the jobs to the Asians and NAFTA. Very sad to see the once active mills/warehouses running at a fraction of their previous activity by other businesses renting space or shuttered altogether.
The 2008 meltdown made it even worse.
Oh, come on!
My home-boy town of Detroit isn’t on that list?
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