Jobs slow to return to cities, US Conference of Mayors report says

GlobalPost

Employment has not rebounded in more than 90 percent of US metropolitan areas following the recession that ended in 2009, according to a US Conference of Mayors report released today, Bloomberg News reported.

What’s more, about 80 of the 363 US metropolitan areas studied aren’t expected to bounce back to their pre-recession levels for more than five years, according to IHS Global Insight, the forecaster that prepared the report for the mayors’ group, Bloomberg News reported.

The recovery is slow and uneven but it is happening, Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles mayor and president of the Conference of Mayors, told reporters, according to Reuters. "By the end of this year, the report forecasts that almost every one of our 363 metro economies will see job gains, and the nation will have gained back 48 percent of its lost jobs," he said.

The national unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent in December, down from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009, Reuters reported.

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The report said employment would return to pre-recession levels by year’s end in New Orleans; Burlington, Vermont; Pittsburgh; Madison, Wisc.; and Dallas, among others, Bloomberg News reported. Myrtle Beach, SC, will see the biggest increase in jobs in 2012, with expected growth of 3 percent.

Three cities will lose jobs in 2012, according to the report: Odessa, Texas, Midland, Texas, and Carson City, Nev.

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