Jobless rates fell from a year earlier in 226 of 387 U.S. metro areas in September

In 226 of the country's 387 metropolitan areas, the September jobless rate was below its level of a year before. It was higher in 138 areas and the same in 23, according to figures the Bureau of Labor Statistics published on October 28. Forty-eight areas had jobless rates below 3%, and five had rates of 8% or more. The national rate in September was 4.0% before seasonal adjustment, little changed from a year earlier.

Metro-area rates are published without seasonal adjustment, so the release compares each area with September 2025. They vary widely. Bismarck, North Dakota, Rapid City, South Dakota, and the Sioux Falls area of South Dakota and Minnesota had the lowest rates, 1.7% each, while El Centro, California, had the highest, 20.8%, followed by Yuma, Arizona, at 14.5%. In all, 223 areas had rates below the national 4.0%, 145 were above it and 19 matched it.

The largest metro areas

Among the 56 metro areas that had at least 1 million residents in the 2020 Census, Cleveland had the lowest rate, 1.9%, down 1.4 percentage points from a year earlier, the largest decline among them. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington followed with a drop of 1.2 points. Fresno, California, had the highest rate, 7.3%, and Hartford, Connecticut, had the largest increase, 1.1 points. Thirty-one large areas had lower rates than a year earlier, 21 had higher rates and four were unchanged.

Connecticut up, New Jersey down

Connecticut stood out. New Haven and Waterbury-Shelton had the largest over-the-year increases of any metro area, 1.2 percentage points each, taking their rates to 5.2% and 5.7%. In the seasonally adjusted state figures BLS published on October 20, Connecticut had the largest over-the-year increase of any state, 0.9 point.

New Jersey went the other way. The Camden and Newark metropolitan divisions had the largest declines among the 37 divisions that make up 13 of the most populous metro areas, 1.7 points each. Vineland, New Jersey, had the second-largest drop of any metro area, 2.2 points, after Eagle Pass, Texas, at 2.5 points. In the state figures, New Jersey had the largest decline from a year earlier, 1.3 points.

Where jobs grew and shrank

For payroll jobs, which are counted at their place of work, the release counts a change only if BLS finds it statistically significant. On that basis, payroll employment rose over the year in 11 metro areas, fell in three and was essentially unchanged in 373. Among the 11, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington added the most jobs, 43,900, followed by Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, 25,400, and Salt Lake City-Murray, 22,400. The Washington, D.C., metro area had 61,000 fewer jobs, a drop of 1.8%, the largest loss of any metro area and the only significant decline among the 56 largest. The other two significant declines were in Bloomington, Indiana, and Flagstaff, Arizona.

At the state level, the District of Columbia had the only statistically significant drop in payroll jobs from a year earlier, 25,800, or 3.5%, while Texas added the most, 154,300. South Dakota had the lowest state unemployment rate in September, 2.0%, and the District the highest, 5.6%, against a national seasonally adjusted rate of 4.2%.

What comes next

BLS will publish October figures for states on November 20 and for metro areas on December 2. The unemployment rates count people where they live, and the payroll figures count jobs at their place of work. The September 2026 metro figures are preliminary and subject to revision next month.