Jobless rates drop in half U.S. metropolitan areas

WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - Unemployment rates fell in June from a year earlier in nearly half of the major U.S. metropolitan areas but more than a third had jobless rates of at least 10 percent, the Labor Department said on Wednesday.

Of the 372 metropolitan areas the government surveys, which encompass cities and counties, 185 said their jobless rates had dropped from a year before and 168 said they had risen. The rest said their rates were unchanged.

The number of areas with rates of 10 percent or more, 128, was lower than in June 2009. A dozen areas had rates of at least 15 percent, 10 of which were in California.

Bismark, North Dakota, registered the lowest unemployment rate in June of 3.8 percent, while the area of El Centro, California, again registered the highest rate of 27.6 percent.

Metropolitan areas' unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted.

On Tuesday, associations representing municipal governments warned that they could lay off 500,000 workers over the next two years in order to balance their budgets in the face of collapsing tax revenues. For more see [ID:nN27112643]. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by James Dalgleish)