Stunning hike in L.A.-area unemployment since 2007

You're looking at the 5th worst metro area out of 99 in terms of increased joblessness between December 2007 (when the recession officially began) and December 2010, according to a Brookings Institution report. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana area saw its overall unemployment rate jump 8.95 percent, compared with Omaha, Nebraska, at 1.4 percent. As you can see from the chart, metro areas that had major housing construction activity prior to 2007 - and then big falls during the downturn - tended to do the worst. But be careful about these numbers. L.A. is actually in better shape than many of the other metros at the bottom of the list; in a recent Brookings report it's grouped next to Madison, Wisconsin (2nd best for unemployment) on overall strength. High jobless rates don't necessarily mean economic stagnation.

1 Omaha, NE 1.4%
2 Madison, WI 1.5%
3 Portland, ME 1.9%
4 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 2.0%
5 Oklahoma City, OK 2.2%
6 Cleveland OH 2.4%
7 Little Rock, AR 2.7%
8 Austin-Round Rock, TX 2.7%
9 McAllen TX 2.9%
10 Washington, DC 2.9%
. . . . . .
90 Bradenton FL 7.2%
91 Orlando FL 7.2%
92 Fresno, CA 7.2%
93 Miami FL 7.4%
94 Sacramento, CA 7.6%
95 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana 8 95%
96 Lakeland FL 7.9 96%
97 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 8.4%
98 Las Vegas, NV 9.9%
99 Stockton, CA 10.4%

Source: Brookings