unemployment map united states
why do the Upper Rockies, Great Plains, West Virginia, and New Hampshire have such low unemployment rates?
If you look at the map in the following link you will see all the counties in the United States where the unemployment rate is below 4%. These counties are absolutely regionalized with a strong geographic pattern. They are located overwhelmingly in the Upper Rocky Mountain states, the Great Plain states, as well as West Virginia, Maryland, and New Hampshire and Vermont.
What is the explanation for this regionalization?
http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t296/anonymouse_05/?action=view¤t=unemployment.png
I can only speak for WV for this, but I would say that in WV we have a lot of different “blue collar” jobs that men can work. A lot more young men in WV are attending college now, but a lot of the older men worked in the coal mines, or in construction, electrical work, and other jobs like that. This is pretty surprising to me, though. There really isn’t a large variety of job opportunities here in WV, although the governor is definitely trying to change that.
People sometimes see WV as a place where no one goes to school, gets degrees, or gets jobs, so I think this map is a good contradiction to that myth.
Hope my reasoning helped =)
Time-Lapse Visualization Of US Unemployment
