Unemployment by Region

An interesting breakdown of unemployment trends since the start of the recession from John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo.  John and I met on the set of Nicole Lapin’s old graveyard shift show on CNBC, a smart man and a very nice guy.

Here he is with a deeper dive into the numbers and a pair of charts…

Nationally, 4.8 percent fewer workers are employed than at the start of the recession, but in the West that number is nearly 7 percent compared to almost 3 percent in the Northeast. Stark differences in joblessness also persist; unemployment in the West stands well above the national rate at 10.4 percent, whereas unemployment in the Northeast is notably lower at 8.2 percent.