WASHINGTON - Unemployment fell in more than 85 percent of the nation's largest metro areas in September, a sharp improvement from the previous month.
The Labor Department says the jobless rate dropped in 321 of the country's 372 metropolitan areas, while remaining the same in 20 and rising in 31. That compares to 230 metro areas that saw their rates fall in August and is the largest number of areas reporting improvement since April.
Thirteen cities, 9 of them in California, reported jobless rates of 15 percent or above, up slightly from 12 in the previous month. But the number of cities reporting unemployment above 10 percent fell steeply to 104, down from 124 in August and the lowest number since the recession ended in June 2009.
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