28 States Register Unemployment Increases: Updated- States At Or Above National Average

The United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Economic News Release of Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary for June shows that 28 states and DC have registered an increase in unemployment numbers, 8 states have shown a decrease and 14 states show no rate change.

[Update]

Areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:

Alabama- 9.9%
Arizona- 9.3%
California- 11.8%
D.C.- 10.4%
Florida- 10.6%
Georgia- 9.9%
Idaho- 9.4%
Illinois 9.2%
Kentucky- 9.6%
Michigan- 10.5%
Mississippi- 10.3%
Nevada- 12.4%
New Jersey- 9.5%
North Carolina- 9.9%
Oregon- 9.4%
Rhode Island- 10.8%
South Carolina- 10.5%
Tennessee- 9.8%
Washington 9.2%

Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)

[Update #2] Finance Yahoo reports that mass layoffs are making a comeback.

Putting pressure on an already lousy job market, the mass layoff is making a comeback. In the past week, Cisco, Lockheed Martin and Borders announced a combined 23,000 in job cuts. (See: Another Retailer Bites the Dust: Borders Doomed by Amazon Deal, Davidowitz Says)

Those announcements follow 41,432 in planned cuts in June, up 11.6% from May and 5.3% vs. a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Meanwhile, state and local governments have cut 142,000 jobs this year, The WSJ reports, and Wall Street is braced for another round of cutbacks. This week, Goldman Sachs announced plans to let go 1000 fixed-income traders.

Howard Davidowitz, CEO of Davidowitz & Associates states "There has never been in a situation in my lifetime where a guy increases the debt by 40%, GDP growth is on the way down, Food Stamps are up, millions more are unemployed -- and to accomplish this we spent $4 trillion."

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