Unemployment rates fall in the Rust Belt, rise in the Sun Belt

The recession officially ended in June of 2009, but the country is still reeling from a 9.1 percent unemployment rate. Certain areas of the country have seen a gradual recovery, while others continue to struggle or are actually losing jobs. The Rust Belt, which struggled with unemployment before the economic collapse, has seen unemployment dropping. Conversely, the South  was prosperous before the recession, with some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, but now six southern states have the highest unemployment rates in the country. Howard Wial, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, recently co-authored an economic analysis of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. Steve Rapson is the  city manager of Union City, Georgia, which struggles with a jobless rate over 10 percent.