Recovery? Most Metro Areas Still Losing Jobs

Only 16 of 384 areas show employment growth in latest Adversity Index

The recovery remains jobless for most of the nation, with only 16 of 384 metro areas showing job gains in the past year, according to new Adversity Index data for February from Moody's Economy.com and msnbc.com.

Of the nation's 384 metro areas, 205 had begun to recover, or 53 percent, according to the February Adversity Index. That's up from 185 metro areas in January, or 48 percent.

But the gains have been confined to manufacturing and housing, not employment.

Moreover, the only areas showing jobs growth are low-population areas. Here is a list of the 16 areas (only 4 percent of the total) showing job gains in the three-month period ending February 2010 compared with the same period a year earlier. They're ranked by annualized growth in jobs:

Ocean City, N.J., up 5.0 percent
Kennewick-Richland-Pasco, Wash., 3.1
Bloomington, Ind., 2.1
Jacksonville, N.C., 1.8
Bismarck, N.D., 1.6
Morgantown, W.Va., 1.1
College Station-Bryan, Texas, 1.0
St. Joseph, Mo.-Kan., 0.9
Cape Girardeau-Jackson, Mo.-Ill., 0.8
Warner Robins, Ga., 0.6
Barnstable, Cape Cod, Mass., 0.6
State College, Pa., 0.5
Lawton, Okla., 0.5
Yakima, Wash., 0.4
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Texas, 0.1
Hanford-Corcoran, Calif., 0.1

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