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While the nation's job market is awful overall—thousands of Americans are exhausting their unemployment benefits daily—it's clear that the true jobs picture is as varied as the nation's topography. With the promise of a recovery on the horizon, new data show that the employment upturn will be regional as well.
The jobs picture is so different in some cities that they would hardly seem to be in the same country. In Bismarck, N.D., the unemployment rate was 2.9 percent last month. Personal income in North Dakota grew more than in any other state in the second quarter—1.5 percent, compared with 0.2 percent nationally. While the nation's job market is awful overall—thousands of Americans are exhausting their unemployment benefits daily—it's clear that the true jobs picture is as varied as the nation's topography. With the promise of a recovery on the horizon, new data show that the employment upturn will be regional as well.

According to a new forecast from IHS Global Insight, unemployment rates in some cities will remain stubbornly high a year from now. As many as 16 cities—in California, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Indiana—will have unemployment rates higher than 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Some of those cities were among the hardest hit by the housing market crisis or had economies highly dependent on manufacturing, IHS reports.