WASHINGTON — Metropolitan areas across the Southeast and Midwest are seeing some of the steepest increases in joblessness, stung by their dependence on factories serving the struggling housing and auto sectors.
That is one of the key trends that emerges from a Labor Department report released Wednesday showing December unemployment rates rose in 98 percent of the country’s largest metropolitan areas, compared with a year earlier. More than 100,000 job cuts have been announced since then by a wide range of industries. The government’s next monthly snapshot of unemployment is expected to show the January rate climbed to a 17-year high.
Layoffs were announced Wednesday by Botox maker Allergan Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc., which cut a combined 1,700 workers.
