Atlantic County, New Jersey, home of the once-vibrant Atlantic City casino scene, now has the highest unemployment rate of any metropolitan area east of the Rocky Mountains, according to a report cited by the Press of Atlantic City.
Atlantic County has seen the steepest decrease in employment of any metropolitan area this year, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, losing approximately 10,000 jobs, most of them in the casino industry. The county has also suffered the largest percentage decrease in employment, minus 7.2 percent.
The worst metro unemployment in the United States “is jointly and firmly held by Yuma, Arizona, with a 25.9 percent rate and El Centro, California, with 23.9 percent,” the Press reported. “Those labor markets are either basket cases or subject to some statistical anomaly, such as undocumented work.”
