West South Central Region: sharing recession pain. (regional review).

The West South Central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas have escaped neither the national recession affecting private sectors throughout the United States, nor have the states avoided budget woes.

According to figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor, the West South Central region had the second-worst unemployment record of all of the recognized census regions during the month of May. Only the Pacific Region, which includes California, Washington and Oregon--with unemployment figures of 6.4 percent for that month--had worse numbers than West So