The Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metropolitan area in Minnesota and the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin metropolitan area in Tennessee posted the lowest unemployment rates among all large, US metropolitan areas at 2.3% each in October, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today.

The highest jobless rate among large metropolitan areas in October was posted by the Cleveland-Elyria area in Ohio, at 5.2%, followed closely by Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise area in Nevada at 5.1%.

The lowest unemployment rates among metropolitan areas of all sizes was in Ames, Iowa., at 1.4%, followed by Columbia, Mo., at 1.5%. El Centro, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., had the highest unemployment rates at 20.9% and 18.0% respectively.

The response rate for the October survey was below average in Puerto Rico, in part as a result of difficulties accessing some remote areas that were significantly affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the Bureau reported. The US Virgin Islands was not able to administer its establishment survey in September or October 2017.