The Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington area in Minnesota and Wisconsin posted the lowest unemployment rate among all large, US metropolitan areas in August at 2.5%, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today.

The New Orleans-Metairie area in Louisiana posted highest jobless rate among large metropolitan areas in August at 5.3%, followed closely by the Cleveland-Elyria area in Ohio at 5.2%.

The lowest unemployment rate among metropolitan areas of all sizes was in Ames, Iowa, at 1.7%. Yuma, Ariz., and El Centro, Calif., had the highest unemployment rates at 22.0% and 20.3%, respectively.