August 2010 Employment Activity by U.S. Region

Breaking down employment activity in August by region, some areas of the U.S. saw hiring improve despite the national downturn. The Midwest in particular posted an impressive performance, gaining more than 4% in the month to reach in Index score of 106.4. The home of the Rust Belt finished last in the nation for employment activity as recently as July of last year, but now trails the strongest region, the Northeast, by just 2.4 points. In contrast, after finishing in a virtual tie for second place last month, the Southeast lost more ground than any other region in August, slipping nearly 5% to finish fourth overall, and just a few points above the perennially poor-performing West.

Index Month	Northeast	Southeast	Midwest	Southwest	West
August 2010	108.8	95.6	106.4	105.2	84.3
July 2010	111.7	100.6	101.9	103.5	88.6
June 2010	108.9	100.1	97.0	100.4	79.7
May 2010	98.6	89.2	89.4	102.9	77.5
April 2010	99.7	87.3	91.3	94.9	74.5
March 2010	94.1	85.6	86.3	97.5	71.3
February 2010	94.3	79.4	95.8	88.6	70.9
January 2010	85.0	66.4	76.8	84.8	63.6
December 2009	84.8	76.0	75.1	79.3	67.6
November 2009	84.5	74.7	68.2	77.7	69.5
October 2009	78.0	66.6	62.1	73.7	63.8
September 2009	75.6	69.1	65.1	75.4	64.5
August 2009	92.0	83.3	80.4	86.3	73.7
July 2009	87.5	80.3	72.4	88.1	75.0
June 2009	68.6	64.4	60.9	69.4	55.9
May 2009	67.0	61.8	53.1	66.9	51.7
April 2009	46.0	42.5	40.4	47.5	40.1
March 2009	48.1	45.8	39.0	51.6	45.2
February 2009	51.7	50.4	46.6	54.4	50.5
January 2009	66.0	58.5	56.6	70.8	62.6
December 2008	69.7	69.9	59.8	71.8	66.3
November 2008	81.1	76.8	72.7	81.6	78.3
October 2008	75.1	71.5	71.1	79.0	75.2
September 2008	87.0	82.9	86.8	97.8	93.3
August 2008	109.0	102.5	105.8	115.2	109.4
July 2008	106.6	96.4	107.7	111.1	96.3
June 2008	108.0	101.2	100.4	111.7	103.0
May 2008	100.0	97.2	92.2	103.8	97.0
April 2008	98.3	92.3	96.7	99.6	95.5
March 2008	115.2	113.1	108.3	119.3	107.7
February 2008	114.5	105.0	133.6	117.3	105.3
January 2008	101.2	94.6	103.3	113.5	100.3

In July, employment activity returned to pre-recession levels in every U.S. region, with the exception of the West. But in August, a number of those gains have been lost. While the Southeast was the only region to drop back below an Index score of 100, the Northeast lost ground as well. And after experiencing an 11% gain in July to pull within just 12 points of the 100-point threshold, employment activity in the West fell again in August, dropping 4.3 points to an Index score of 84.3. At this rate, the West could remain stuck behind the rest of the country for the rest of 2010, and possibly into 2011 as well.

Looking back over the past 24 months, regional employment is in a very similar position to where it was in August of 2008, before the Great Recession began. Notable exceptions include the West, which at the time was in second place with an Index score of 109.4, and the Midwest, which finished in fourth place during that month. But while this would indicate that hiring has stabilized after a difficult 22-month period, the steep losses sustained between September 2008 and February 2010 have left millions out of work, and hiring will need to significantly outperform even peak 2008 levels before unemployment begins to decline.