Department of Numbers

St. Louis, Missouri Unemployment

The BLS reported that the unemployment rate for St Louis fell 0.1 percentage points in December 2011 to 8.6%. For the same month, the metro unemployment rate was 0.6 percentage points higher than the Missouri rate. The unemployment rate in St Louis peaked in December 2009 at 10.5% and is now 1.9 percentage points lower. You can also compare St Louis unemployment with unemployment in other cities.

Unemployment Rate December 2011 Month/Month Year/Year
National 8.5% -0.2 -0.9
Missouri 8.0% -0.2 -1.6
St Louis 8.6% -0.1 -1.2
Note: Metro level data is now seasonally adjusted.1 All comparisons are made with December 2011 data as January metro level unemployment data has not yet been released.

Unemployment Rate: St Louis, Missouri, National

St Louis, Missouri monthly unemployment rate chart

Note: Recessions shown in gray.

St Louis, Missouri Unemployed

The number of people unemployed in St Louis peaked in December 2009 at 149,824. There are now 23,612 fewer people unemployed in the metropolitan area.

Unemployed Persons December 2011 Month/Month Year/Year
St Louis 126,212 -695 -14,382

Number of Unemployed Persons

St Louis, Missouri Unemployment History

Date National
Unemployment Rate
Missouri
Unemployment Rate
St Louis
Unemployment Rate
St Louis
Unemployed
January
2012
8.3%
December
2011
8.5% 8.0% 8.6% 126,212
November
2011
8.7% 8.2% 8.7% 126,907
October
2011
8.9% 8.5% 8.8% 128,819
September
2011
9.0% 8.7% 8.8% 127,702
August
2011
9.1% 8.8% 8.8% 127,199
July
2011
9.1% 8.7% 8.8% 126,904
June
2011
9.1% 8.8% 8.9% 129,418
May
2011
9.0% 8.9% 9.1% 131,048
April
2011
9.0% 8.9% 9.1% 131,928
March
2011
8.9% 9.1% 9.3% 133,260
February
2011
9.0% 9.4% 9.5% 136,417
January
2011
9.1% 9.5% 9.6% 138,772

1. Metro area unemployment rates are now seasonally adjusted. The BLS has started publishing smoothed seasonally adjusted metropolitan area data which makes comparisons to state and national data more relevant than the unadjusted numbers.