Cities throughout California continue to be the nation’s biggest economic laggards while the Northeast and South continue to fare better than average job growth, according to this report released today by the Urban Institute.

The nation’s economic recovery is now in its fourth year but remains woefully slow on job growth. The nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas saw employment decline by a median of 5% through the recession, which ended in June 2009. Since then they’ve seen media employment growth of 1%, according to the Urban Institute in Washington. The unemployment rate remains stuck in a narrow range between 8.1% and 8.3% this year.