http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/10/business/zc38051af6b05f68b882575390075cea0.txt Unlike the last recession, today's unemployment hot spots are all over the map. The five states with the highest unemployment rates ---- Michigan, Rhode Island, South Carolina, California and Oregon ---- all have something in common, though: a heightened exposure to the root causes of this downward spiral. The collapse of housing. The implosion of the auto industry. The meltdown of financial services. The exodus of manufacturing. All states are feeling the pain, but the worst are getting hammered on multiple fronts: -- The rotten housing market has punished California lenders and builders, taken an ax to Oregon's timber industry and soured the prospects for construction workers in Rhode Island, where buyers from neighboring states helped drive up home prices.
