Jobless rates rise in all metropolitan areas in Feb. from a year ago

WASHINGTON -- Unemployment rates rose in all of the nation's largest metropolitan areas for the second straight month in February.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday all 372 metropolitan areas tracked saw their jobless rates rise in February from a year earlier. Indiana's Elkhart-Goshen and North Carolina's Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, both hammered by manufacturing layoffs, registered the biggest annual increases.

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.1% in February, the highest in more than 25 years. Economists predict the national jobless rate will climb to 8.5% in March. The government releases that report on Friday. It will probably hit 10% by year-end even if the recession were to end later this year, they said.

Eklhart-Goshen's jobless rate soared to 18% in February, up 12.5 percentage points. The area has been battered by layoffs in the recreational vehicle industry. RV makers Monaco Coach, Keystone RV and Pilgrim International have cut hundreds of jobs.

The jobless rate in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton jumped to 15.7%, a 9.3 percentage point increase in the area located about 60 miles northwest of Charlotte. About one-third of all jobs in Hickory, N.C. are at manufacturing plants, said Scott Millar, director of the Catawba County Economic Development Corp., which recruits new businesses.

"I think part of the issue we're dealing with is pure math as the nation changes into a services oriented economy," Millar said.

The local layoffs accelerated at furniture makers and textile producers that have been shifting work to low-cost overseas producers for a decade, and at auto suppliers battered by slumping car sales. Even the fiber-optic cable manufacturers that once seemed to be the region's hope are suffering from a lack of orders. Corning Cable Systems in February said it would eliminate about 200 jobs as it shut an optical assembly plant in Hickory.

El-Centro, Calif., continued to lay claim to the highest unemployment rate — 24.5%. The jobless rate is notoriously high in the area, where many unemployed are seasonal agriculture workers.