Jobless rate in Western US tops 10 percent

Jobless rate in Western US tops 10 percent
Jobless rate in Western US tops 10 percent in May, first time since 1983; 8 states set records

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Jobless-rate-in-Western-US-apf-3224283879.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The unemployment rate in the West jumped over 10 percent last month, the first time that regional threshold has been broken in about 25 years. On the state level, eight set record-highs and only two -- Nebraska and Vermont -- did not report increases.

The Labor Department reported Friday that 48 states and the District of Columbia saw employment conditions deteriorate last month. The fallout from the longest recession since World War II, was the worst in Michigan as automakers cut tens of thousands of jobs. Its unemployment rate rose to 14.1 percent.
The West region reported the highest jobless rate at 10.1 percent. The last time any region had a rate of at least 10 percent was September 1983, when the country was emerging from a severe recession.
The region is home to California, where the jobless rate jumped to a record 11.5 percent last month, Nevada, where it's a record 11.3 percent, and other states that have been slammed when the housing boom went bust -- snatching jobs and wealth.
The other six states that set new highs on records dating to 1976 were: North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.
Nebraska's jobless rate dipped last month, while Vermont's was flat.
On the layoffs front, Arizona and Florida suffered the largely monthly percentage decreases, followed by Oklahoma and Arkansas, Kentucky and Michigan.

Joblessness is rising as companies lay off workers and turn to other cost-saving measures, such as trimming hours and freezing or slicing wages, to survive the recession. Housing, credit and financial problems -- the worst since the 1930s -- have sent the economy into a tailspin.

Factories, construction companies, retailers and financial companies are among the industries that have slashed the most jobs. U.S. manufacturers have suffered a double whammy: customers in the U.S. have pulled back along with foreign customers, who are dealing with their own economic troubles.

Global Migration Flows Reverse for the First Time Since the Depression as Work in the Rich World Dries Up

The Great U-Turn
Global Migration Flows Reverse for the First Time Since the Depression as Work in the Rich World Dries Up

(Source Wall Street Journal)
The developed world, which for decades has offered a difficult but promising path to upward mobility, appears to be losing its allure. Unemployment is rising, and backlashes against foreign workers are mounting.

The result is potentially the biggest turnaround in migration flows since the Great Depression, economists say.
Full migration numbers for most countries are only available after a long lag, and so don't yet capture all the effects of today's economic crisis. But anecdotal reports and data from government ministries and outside organizations indicate that the flow of immigrants from poor to wealthier countries is slowing significantly for the first time in decades while more people are returning home. Among the returnees: road builders from Bangladesh, domestic servants from the Philippines, factory workers from Indonesia and Vietnam, construction workers from Mexico, as well as bankers, lawyers and real-estate professionals from around the world who were working in Singapore and Dubai.

Emigration from Mexico to the U.S. dropped 13% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, with more Mexicans leaving the U.S. than coming in. Indonesian authorities expect 60,000 or more citizens to be sent home from Malaysia, South Korea and other wealthy neighbors this year, as immigrant workers lose their jobs. Tens of thousands of Indians are washing their hands of Dubai as jobs there dry up and work permits expire. And in the U.K., the number of registered workers coming from new European Union member nations like Poland and the Czech Republic dropped 55% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
A growing number of migrants are returning home to places as diverse as Nepal and Tajikistan, while many are deciding not to emigrate to begin with, says Dilip Ratha, an economist and migration expert at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., citing reports from ministries and embassies. Mr. Ratha calls this reverse migration "very new" and "unprecedented."
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