According to the report published on Wednesday by the US Conference of Mayors and research group Global Insight. The mayors group released the report a day ahead of a meeting with US President Barack Obama in which it will seek federal financial aid for small and large cities. "What is just as alarming as the double-digit unemployment in many of the nation's major metro areas is the lethargic rate at which it will recede once the job market turns around," the report said.
The national unemployment rate currently stands at 10 percent. The mayors will push the president to put direct fiscal relief for cities in the budget he is set to propose next month. They will also press for money banks are repaying to the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program to go to help small businesses.
"The effort to ameliorate the human and economic costs of unemployment needs to be sustained, and targeted directly to those metro areas where so much of the labor force is under-utilised, unable to contribute to our nation's economic growth," the report said. Tensions emerged when the $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed a year ago sent aid to cities through states. Now, local government groups are asking Obama to find new formulas to put money directly in their hands.