Elkhart-Goshen Area Again Tops Jobless Report

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Jobless rates rose in all the largest U.S. metropolitan areas for the fourth straight month in April, a trend likely to persist even as the recession eases, according to the Associated Press.

The Labor Department said Wednesday (June 3) that unemployment in April rose from a year earlier in all 372 metropolitan areas it tracks. The rate for Elkhart-Goshen in Indiana jumped to 17.8%, up 12.7 percentage points from a year ago. The region, which posted the largest increase from last year, has been pounded by layoffs in the recreational vehicle industry.

The second-highest jump occurred in another RV manufacturing community, Bend, Ore. Its rate rose to 15.6%, up 9 percentage points from last year. The region of North Carolina’s Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton saw its unemployment rate rise to 14.9%, a gain of 8.8 percentage points from last year.