Tag Archives: Unemployment Rate

With Christmas just one week away, RealtyTrac has released a list of the nicest and naughtiest U.S. housing markets based on a number of factors, including foreclosure rate, crime ratings, unemployment rate, school scores, housing affordability, and sex offenders per capita. RealtyTrac found the "nicest" housing market in the U.S. to be Cary, North Carolina, and the "naughtiest" to be Milwaukee, Wisconsin, based on those metrics. Cary was chosen as the nicest housing market based on the city's low unemployment by county rate (4.40 percent), sex offender per capita rate (0.021 percent, or an average of 2.12 sex offenders for every 10,000 people), low foreclosure inventory (0.17 percent, or 17 foreclosures for every 1,000 housing units), total crime index (20.1 percent, for a crime rating of A), average elementary school score for 2013 (1.0979) and home affordability, or the percentage of median income to buy median-priced homes (21.38 percent).

Though regional and state unemployment rates changed little from September to October, 42 states and the District of Columbia saw year-over-year declines in their respective unemployment rates, according to the October 2014 Regional and State Employment and Unemployment report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

U.S. employers added 214,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday morning. Economists had expected payrolls would increase by 240,000, a slight decline from September's preliminary estimate of 248,000 new jobs added.

U.S. payrolls grew less than expected in July, a potential sign that the labor market recovery might be cooling following an early summer hiring spike. According to the Department of Labor, the economy added 209,000 jobs last month, coming in under the 233,000 predicted by economists. The national unemployment rate ticked up from 6.1 percent to 6.2 percent.

According to numbers from the Labor Department, employers added 288,000 jobs last month, soaring above economists' consensus forecast of 211,000 new jobs. Meanwhile, payroll additions for April and May were revised up to 304,000 and 224,000, respectively, bringing gains in those months up 29,000 higher than previously reported.