The 10 Worst Cities for Finding a Job

Yahoo Finance | US News & World Report ^ | 01/23/2012 | Danielle Kurtzleben

[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

. . .

[cloudmountain]

“We are the 8th largest economy in the world, and have 38 million people, so we must be doing SOMETHING right.”
Very little. Mostly the state is coasting on the labor of those who went before. Give it a few more years. California will look like the Manila City Dump.

Hahaha! We aren't the 8th largest economy in the world for no reason. We have 38 million people here because there are jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs.

There are always the food pickers, true, and those are seasonal, but there are high-tech jobs too. Silicon Valley (the Peninsula south of San Francisco) has been having its job boom for 30+ years. Don't hold your breath waiting for high tech to suddenly disappear.

San Francisco is the banking center of the west with more banks in the city than any other city west of Chicago. A. P. Giannini, from San Francisco, was the founder of the Bank of America.

Southern California employs more people than make up most of the midwest states. The south part of the state has so many military facilities that they rank almost as their own cities. As for jobs, southern California has ALWAYS attracted people from all over the states and world, because there are ALWAYS jobs for the skilled and educated.

Then, there is the weather. MOST people think that six months of winter snow, ice and miserably cold weather ISN'T fun. Some of the biggest Sun Belt retirement homes started in southern California. NOW they are just too darned expensive for the average non-California retiree, so they retire in less expensive Sun Belt states.

Maybe the Manila City Dump is what it looks like where YOU live but that won't be California. Try again.

[FreedomPoster]

I’m guessing it might be out of work furniture industry workers; a lot of that work has moved to China.

[cloudmountain]

It may have something to do with Ca being over taxed, over regulated, run by crooked politicians on the dole from unions and special interests and assorted marxists that have resulted in the state being bankrupt. As for the 38 million, don't look what is causing all that population growth...you may get ill

Over taxed and over regulated....what states aren't? The regulation comes MOSTLY from the Feds. The taxes are to make roads...:o)MOST of our taxes seem to go to highways.

Crooked politicians? Check out the REST OF THE PLANET and you will find that crooked politicians are everywhere. If you don't have them in Puckerbrush, USA, where you must live, then it's because no one cares there. What a dumb thing for you to say and you know it.

Unions and special interests and assorted marxists?
Unions aren't OUR problem; they are yours. Unions make up only 18% of the US workforce. The other 82% of the workforce use the free market system. Nothing wrong with that.

Special interests--another dumb statement. Show me a state that doesn't have "special interest" groups. Congress is always complaining about its members and their "pork barrel" special interests. Wake up and smell the coffee, paul51.

Assorted marxiists -- They exist around MOST large universities because college profs so often are ASSorted marxists. If you haven't any ASSorted marxists then you haven't any large universities. Big states create big universities. Big states have big money and can afford big salaries to attract the best.
The University of California had Dr. Wernher von Braun in its Physics Department. There weren't any better profs of physics at the time.
Yeah, he was German-born American rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that. He died in 1977. He did spend the last 30+ years of his life in America.

[cloudmountain]

"We are the 8th largest economy in the world, and have 38 million people, so we must be doing SOMETHING right."
No, you are not. Its inertia.

Yes, we are.
As for inertia, that's YOU since you haven't done your reading about the economies of the individual states. Geez, it's such COMMON knowledge about California it's in Wikipedia. Even a school kid can know THAT.

[cloudmountain]

I guess we're one country when Californians put down the rest of the country. When people wise up and start putting down California, suddenly Prune Pickers get their feelings hurt.

What Californian puts down the rest of the country? I don't. I may put down individuals from other parts of the country, but only if they write something UNbelievable stupid. That is what we DO here on FR.

My feelings aren't hurt by what others say...never have been after I reached puberty. I know that put-downs are the problems of those who are so insecure that they put down others to make themselves feel better.

I think that ALL 50 states are FANtastic.

Granted, one MUST admit that Hawaii MIGHT be a tad better because it's a paradise to visit. Wow, what a place. And, I might not want to visit North Dakota in the winter (from October - March--that's what my OLDEST friend in my life says. She's from ND and now lives in California.). But each state has its own unique beauty and history and is an integral part of our whole blessed UNION.

[paul51]

I would agree most of these things are not unique to CA. On the other hand, I also believe it is generally recognized that Ca has a tendency to take them to new levels....particularly when it comes to things like taxes, financial stability, regulations and political orientation. If you don't agree, I understand. I spend a fair amount of time in Ca, Utah and Wyoming and at times I feel I live in three different countries. There are major differences.

[Cymbaline]

Yes, Hyper-Liberalism infects most big cities, but in California the whole state is infected with it. You must know that.

The state is a liberal petri dish. It’s as if someone said, let’s see what happens when we give the Left free reign to do whatever they want. The Unions effectively run California, and the state is bankrupt.

Do I have a problem with California? You bet I do. I grew up in Modesto, one of the cities on the list. That whole Central Valley is in a depression. I escaped to Texas 6 years ago, and thank God I did.

It saddens me to see what the Left has done to my state. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see yet another reason to be glad I left.

You want me to do some reading? I suggest you read Victor Davis Hanson’s blog on PJ Media. He gives almost a weekly account of the deterioration of the state.

[NathanR]

Prune pickers, if there are still such people, are Mexicans.

[dsc]

Just keep whistling past that graveyard.

[cloudmountain]

Just keep whistling past that graveyard.

Well, YOU just keep denegrading; it's what you do best. What a nice thing to do to your soul.

[cloudmountain]

Just keep whistling past that graveyard.

Well, YOU just keep denegrading; it's what you do best. What a nice thing to do to your soul.

[cloudmountain]

Yes, Hyper-Liberalism infects most big cities, but in California the whole state is infected with it. You must know that. The state is a liberal petri dish. It’s as if someone said, let’s see what happens when we give the Left free reign to do whatever they want. The Unions effectively run California, and the state is bankrupt. Do I have a problem with California? You bet I do. I grew up in Modesto, one of the cities on the list. That whole Central Valley is in a depression. I escaped to Texas 6 years ago, and thank God I did. It saddens me to see what the Left has done to my state. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see yet another reason to be glad I left. You want me to do some reading? I suggest you read Victor Davis Hanson’s blog on PJ Media. He gives almost a weekly account of the deterioration of the state.

Hanson's Homey: Well, you just keep focusing on the negative; it seems to be your choice of life-view. Keep reading how awful things are and maybe it will make you feel better about yourself. I doubt it, but you keep trying to do that.
I, for one, try to focus on what's right with things as well as what's wrong, but then, I live in California along with the other 38 MILLION, MANY of whom left their erstwhile home states.
They write on how their home-states drove them away and on to a state where there are JOBS and winters that last less than six months.

What saddens me is that so many people feel that California is a choice they HAVE to make because of what their own home-state lacks.
California was the home of Ronald Reagan, the John Birch Society. We had a Republican as goverator for eight years. There are plenty of conservatives here and we have jobs and pay taxes. Unfortunately we have too many leftists too, but then, Obama WASN'T from California, was he? Other states produce many leftists too, but since we are the largest state, it's not too much of a logical thought that we would produce more leftists. We also produce more of EVERYTHING (except oranges).