Unemployment in top 75 cities nearly back to pre-Covid levels

The average unemployment rate in the top 75 cities fell by almost two percentage points, from 5.4 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent in 2022, comparable to the average unemployment rate in 2019. The average in 2020 was 8.8 percent. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cities with the highest unemployment rate in 2022 were Stockton, Henderson, Las Vegas, Fresno and Bakersfield.

The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed people as a percentage of the civilian labor force, which is the total number of employed and unemployed people in the civilian non-institutional population  (the number of people aged 16 and older who are not incarcerated or on active duty in the military).

Unemployed persons are defined as "those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), "the concepts and definitions underlying LAUS data come from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the household survey that is the source of the national unemployment rate. State monthly model-based estimates are controlled in "real time" to sum to national monthly employment and unemployment estimates from the CPS. These models combine current and historical data from the CPS, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, and state unemployment insurance (UI) systems."

Source: The city unemployment rate comes from Local Area Unemployment Statistics -- State(s) where area(s) located or Census regions and divisions