After 2015, further disparities have emerged between large metropolitan areas, where unemployment rates have continued to decline, and other parts of the country. These dynamics create special problems for crafting appropriate policy responses as quite different labour market conditions can coexist across relatively short distances. Similar differences hold for unemployment, ranging from just 1.7% in Hawaii to 7.3% in Alaska. At the metropolitan area level the rates vary from 1.5% in Ames, Iowa to almost 18% in El Centro in California (where the State-w ide rate is close to the national average at 4.2%).