Comparing the unemployment rates of New York City, Chicago, LA, Las Vegas, and Atlanta

So I decided to take a look at the unemployment rate by major metropolitan area for several of the US's big cities---New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, and Atlanta. It's important to note that since this is at the metro-level (rather than national or state level), the unemployment rates are 'lumpier' --- just as a result of statistical sampling techniques used for each geography.



But in general you can see some trends, LA and Las Vegas have seen the steepest increase in unemployment rate during the last 2 years---followed by Atlanta & Chicago. And the diverse New York City economy seems to be holding in there a little bit better than its peers.