There are 216 defined metropolitan (metro) and micropolitan (micro) areas—with populations ranging from 10,000 to 4 million—that have had unemployment rates at least two percentage points higher than the national average for either 20, 10, or 5 years (see tables 1, 2, 3 at the end of this article). These are America’s dead zones. Here employment growth is stagnant or non-existent and high levels of joblessness dominate. Some areas were once prosperous while others have recently experienced economic distress. In these communities paid work is hard to find for those who have not given up looking, and widespread involuntary idleness is the norm.

The wide variation in rates of unemployment between prosperous and dead zones is displayed below (click on the image to enlarge):

The map below presents a visual representation of dead and prosperous zonesIt shows, for example, that dead zones have existed in the South dating as far back as two decades. Furthermore, the last five years of data show almost no development of prosperous areas. The unevenness of the current national recovery is starker in dead zones, where unemployment rates have been high for longer periods of time.

Read the rest at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/153875/america’s_dead_zones%3A_from_detroit_to_dyersburg%2C_why_does_prosperity_pass_so_many_places_by/?page=entire