Americans’ economic struggles persisted in July, largely unchanged from the previous month, according to The Associated Press’ monthly analysis.
Nationally, unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates didn’t budge from June. Yet the economic pain varied, depending on economic bases. Stress eased in counties whose workforces lean toward agriculture, mining, wholesale trade and finance.
Counties with many employees in the retail and real-estate industries suffered higher distress in July. Economic stress declined month to month in July in about 54 percent of the nation’s 3,141 counties and in 24 states, AP’s Economic Stress Index shows.
The index calculates a score for each county and state from 1 to 100 based on unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. A higher score indicates more stress. A county is considered stressed when its score exceeds 11.
The index found the average county’s score in July was 10.5, unchanged from June. About 42 percent of counties were found to be stressed, also unchanged from June.
Nevada, with a score of 22.1, was again the most stressed state. Put another way, 1 in 4.5 Nevadans in July was either unemployed, owned a home in some stage of foreclosure or had filed for bankruptcy. Rounding out the top five states were Michigan (17.44), California (16.88), Florida (15.94) and Arizona (15.41).
Friday, the government said the unemployment rate for August ticked up to 9.6 percent. Most economists say it will take years for the rate to drop to near 5 percent, where it was when the recession began in late 2007.
