6. Sacramento, California

Unemployment Rate: 11.8%

Labor Force: 1 million



Unemployed: 124,400

Sacramento Bee: It felt like a recession Friday at the EDD's job center on Broadway in Sacramento. Unemployed bookkeeper Marlena Turner was flabbergasted when told the region's unemployment rate had fallen.

"It seems like every time you turn around, people are getting laid off," said Turner, 62, who lost her job in February.

As for her own job search, she said: "You send out résumé after résumé … not even a nibble."

Sacramentan Joe Rodriguez, 54, was laid off a year ago from a gravel plant. He checks in periodically with his union, Operating Engineers Local 3, but "they don't have anything for me yet."

[Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area]