Job Woes Linger in 29 States as U.S. Recovers Unevenly

Kevin Yearout has added about 80 jobs to his Albuquerque, New Mexico, contracting company since July of last year. That still leaves him with less than half the number he employed in 2009, at the end of the deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

“It has been a very slow climb back,” said Yearout, 51, co-owner and chief executive officer of Yearout Mechanical Inc. “The economy went very south, very quickly.” With his commercial construction business hobbled by government funding cutbacks, “I never see the local economy getting back” to justify the prior level of jobs.