Metropolitan Milwaukee's unemployment rate jumped to 5.5% in November, the U.S. Department of Labor reported this week.

That translates to nearly 6,000 more jobless residents than there were a year earlier. But compared with the gloomy state of other major metro areas, Milwaukee is faring relatively well.

Of the 50 largest metros, just nine had unemployment rates lower than Milwaukee's. The figures released this week are not seasonally adjusted.

Even more dramatic was the difference in how much the jobless picture has worsened over the last year in the biggest metro areas.

Here, the unemployment rate rose 0.8 percentage points from the 4.7% figure of November 2007. That tied Salt Lake City for second-lowest percentage increase among the 50 largest metros. Only Oklahoma City, with a 0.4-point rise, did better.

One possible explanation: Milwaukee, where the real estate market never became as overheated as it did elsewhere in the country, hasn't had as far to fall.

The Labor Department numbers lend some support for that argument.

Twenty-one of the nation's 50 biggest metropolitan areas saw their jobless rate jump by 2 percentage points or more. Nearly two-thirds of those 21 are in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia or Nevada - all states with above-average home foreclosure rates as measured by research firm RealtyTrac.

'That's probably a good possibility,' Bret Mayborne, economic research director for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said of the area being less affected by real-estate fallout.

Dennis Winters, chief economist for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, agreed.

'That's a lot of the story for Milwaukee,' he said.

The metropolitan area covers four counties - Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee. The city proper doesn't compare as favorably with other big cities.

The city of Milwaukee's November unemployment rate of 7.7% was 15th highest among the country's 50 largest cities, a report by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development shows. The report draws on U.S. Labor Department data.

And the four-county metropolitan area, while its unemployment rate isn't as bad as others, has done relatively poorly in preserving its job base.

The number of employees here shrunk by 1.3% from November 2007 to November 2008. Only 11 of the 50 largest metros did worse, led by Detroit with a 3.7% loss.