The Tampa Bay area may be in the dumps about its unemployment rate of 10.4 percent, but take heart.
Based on the latest analysis of metro area job figures from the U.S. Department of Labor, it could be worse. Much worse.
Take El Centro, Calif., with an unemployment rate of 25.1 percent, making it the hardest hit metro area in the country. Or not far behind: Yuba City, Calif., at 20.4 percent.
The bay area has plenty of company in the double-digit jobless territory. Out of 372 metro areas, 109 have unemployment rates of 10 percent or higher. A year ago, there were only 14 communities in that stratosphere.
Here are some other highlights — and lowlights — from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday:
• Eighteen metro areas had jobless rates of at least 15 percent, while 15 areas were still enjoying unemployment below 5 percent. Twelve of those in the 15-percent-plus club were in California.
• On the opposite side of the spectrum from El Centro were Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, La., and Iowa City, Iowa, each with rates of 3.6 percent in March.
• Far removed from the days of Hurricane Katrina, and with a smaller population base now, the New Orleans area boasted the lowest unemployment rate (5.3 percent) among the 49 metro areas with a population of 1 million or more.
• Cape Coral/Fort Myers saw its employment base shrink by 9.7 percent, a year-over-year percentage decrease that was second in the country only to Elkhart-Goshen, Ind.
• Only 22 metro areas reported an increased number of workers since last year compared to 282 posting declines.
• Though Florida as a whole has shed more than 400,000 jobs since last year, none of its metro areas made the list of the biggest losers. That was led by the Los-Angeles region (down 221,300 jobs), followed by New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (down 219,700 jobs), the Chicago area (down 157,600 jobs), Phoenix (down 136,000 jobs) and Detroit (down 135,300 jobs).
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