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

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