Welcome To El Centro, CA – The Unemployment Capital of America

Unemployment Capital of America

The Wall Street Journal dug into the just-released stats from the Labor Department, including March unemployment figures for 310 metropolitan areas. 

From WSJ:
El Centro, Calif., is again at the top of the list, as unemployment there hit a jaw-dropping 25% in March.

Where and what is El Centro, California?  Its the county seat for Imperial County, an area east of San Diego.  In 2006, the city was home to about 40,000 residents living in 11,000 or so households.  There isn’t anything very extraordinary about the place that should put it at the top of the unemployment heap, it just kind of sucks to be them, I guess.

There is one point of pride for El Centro, however…its the town that Cher grew up in.  That ain’t going to pay the bills of the 25% of residents who don’t have jobs, but I guess its something they can chat about on the unemployment line.

Full Story: Unemployment Study of Cities (WSJ)