A report released today states that unemployment rates rose in 98 percent of metropolitan areas across the country in the last month of 2008, CNNMoney reported.

According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rates in 363 of 369 metropolitan areas across the United States increased in December 2008 when compared with December 2007.

Additionally, 95 regions registered unemployment rates that were at least 3 percentage points higher than they were a year ago. Only 22 metropolitan regions had unemployment rates that were under 4 percent, compared with 112 regions that were under 4 percent a year earlier.

However, despite higher unemployment, a study that was released today from ADP Employer Services indicated that there might be some light at the end of the tunnel.

According to the report, private-sector job losses actually slowed slightly in January, Reuters reported. Private employers cut 522,000 jobs in January, compared with 659,000 jobs in December. The number of layoffs for the first month of the year came in better than the 530,000 figure that economists had predicted.