NY, NJ Unemployment Higher Now Than During Recession

From Bloomberg, "Why Is Northeastern Unemployment Soaring?" by Evan Soltas:

Unemployment is surging across the Northeast. In two states -- New York and New Jersey -- the statewide rates of unemployment are higher than they were at any point during the recession. In Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, years' worth of progress against unemployment has been reversed in a matter of months.***It's not exactly clear what is holding the Northeastern job market back, though. The slow growth in employment is broad: The region lags behind the nation in job creation in seven out of 10 industry categories.

And the region had weak GDP growth in 2011 to match the poor jobs performance. Last year, the Northeast grew at just 1 percent, versus 1.8 percent for the rest of the country. Two Northeastern states -- New Jersey and Maine -- were actually in recession at the state level.