The jobless rate rose in 345 large metro areas in June, the Labor Department announced Wednesday.

The numbers are a sharp increase from May when the unemployment rates rose in 210 cities and from April when the rates fell in almost all of the areas, the Associated Press reports.

One reason behind the surge could be that employers only added 18,000 jobs in June, which is the lowest total in the past nine months, the news service reports.

Tornado stricken Joplin, Missouri, saw the largest uptick, seeing their unemployment rate rise to 9.6 percent, 0.4 percent higher than the national average in June.

Overall, this isn’t good news for the many African-Americans who reside in large cities. The Black unemployment rate is already a staggering 16.2 percent, almost twice the national average.

Unemployment figures for July are set to be released Friday.

(Photo: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)