PORTLAND, Ore. -- Metro Portland's unemployment ranks have swelled faster over a one-year period than any other major U.S. metropolitan area, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Labor Department.

MSNBC graphic

The Portland-Vancouver area's jobless rate jumped 6.7 percent from May 2008 to May 2009, surpassing even Detroit's 6.6 percent increase during the same time period.

Portland's unemployment rate stood at 11.6 percent last month.

Other smaller cities have higher jobless rates, a few of them in Oregon.

About 15 percent of people living in Bend are unemployed, up from about 8.8 percent last year this time. Bend's jump was third-highest in the nation of any sized city, according to the report.

Oregon's second-largest city, Eugene, has an overall unemployment average of 13 percent. Medford's is almost 14 percent.

The bureau’s release of monthly statistics today was grim.

But Oregon is not alone. In fact, unemployment either stayed the same or increased in every single metro area in the United States, save one, in which labor statistics are collected and submitted to the government.

That's 371 major cities -- 15 of which had unemployment rates of 15 percent or higher.

Buffalo, NY may have seen a decrease in unemployment of about two-tenths of 1 percent.

Denver and Minneapolis metro areas' jobless tallies stayed the same, neither growing nor declining.

Joblessness seems to not be an issue for some heartland metro areas, though. Bismarck, ND has the nation's lowest unemployment rate for a metro area, at 3.5 percent. Next come two Iowa university towns, Iowa City and Ames, with 3.7 and 3.8 percent rates, respectively.

Average the unemployment rates of all 50 states together for the month of May and about 9 percent of the nation is unemployed, more than double the number one year ago.

Many economists predict the national unemployment rate will rise to 9.6 percent in June. The government releases the new national employment report on Thursday.

If they are right, it would mark the highest jobless rate since 10.1 percent in June 1983, when the country was trying to recover from a severe recession. 

A common thread running through most of the regions that have been hard hit is the loss of manufacturing jobs. The collapse of the housing market has especially hurt jobs at factories that produce building materials and household goods, such as carpets, flooring, appliances and furniture. In addition, the global recession has cut into demand from customers both at home and abroad for a wide range of goods.