By Dees Stribling | MHN Online
(Editor’s Note: Arizona’s unemployment rate was 5.9% as of May.)
Real estate markets are local, and few economic indicators are more important for the health of the market than localized unemployment numbers—MSA or statewide. It’s all well and good that the national unemployment rate is now at a reasonably healthy 5.3 percent, but to communities in West Virginia (for instance), the more important number is 7.4 percent. That’s the current unemployment rate in the state and in fact the highest state rate in the nation in June, according to data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday. By contrast, Nebraska had the lowest rate in the country, coming at 2.6 percent. It’s worth noting that while the Dakotas’ unemployment rates are still fairly low (3.1 percent, North, and 3.8 percent, South), the drop in the price of oil has dropped them from their former No. 1 and 2 positions.
