Wall Street celebrated by pushing stocks and commodities higher. The Dow Jones industrial average surged above 9,500 Friday for the first time since November and oil futures flirted with $75 a barrel before closing at $73.89, the highest settlement price of 2009. The Dow rose $155.91, or 1.7 percent, to 9,505.96, and the other big indexes gained more than 1.5 percent. But the rally-sparking reassurance disguises the reality that many of the nation's most populous regions -- areas such as California and Florida -- long accustomed to serving as dynamos of recovery and growth might not see much cause for rejoicing any time soon. That's because the recession's grip has been so varied from one region to another that recovery probably will be uneven, economists say, and because factors that helped make some areas powerhouses -- such as in-migration from other states -- might not work for them this time. Apart from Texas, the nation's southern economic heavyweights were among the hardest hit during the downturn, and the negative effects might last for years. Trouble figures to persist in the nation's industrial midsection as well. In the good news column, the National Association of Realtors said Friday that sales of existing homes rose 7.2 percent in July, the largest monthly gain since record-keeping began in 1999 and higher than analysts had expected. But in the West, housing resale activity fell 1.7 percent over the month. Striking a sour note, data released by the Labor Department on Friday showed that unemployment climbed higher into double digits in California during July, while Florida's jobless rate stood at 10.7 percent last month -- and the June rate was revised upward to the same level. During July, California shed another 35,800 jobs and Florida more than 25,000; combined, the two states have lost one-fifth of the 5.7 million jobs cut nationwide in the past 12 months. Michigan, Illinois and Ohio have been pounded as well, largely because of auto and other manufacturing woes. Collectively, the three states have lost more than 830,000 jobs in the past year, and their unemployment rates were well above the national average of 9.4 percent in July. Although deep recessions typically have been followed by robust recoveries, many more of the manufacturing jobs lost in this recession are thought to be permanent. And concerns about sluggish spending by debt-ridden consumers are weighing down growth forecasts. David Huether, chief economist at the National Manufacturers Association, says he's expecting only half of the nearly 2 million factory jobs lost to come back. 'There's going to be stagnation going on,' he said. America's breadbasket, by contrast, has weathered the economic storm, thanks to its reliance on energy and commodities -- making it a potential leader in a recovery. Texas, by some measures, entered the recession only in the first quarter of 2009, more than a year after the nation, and it added nearly 38,000 jobs in July on a seasonally adjusted basis, third after New York and Michigan. Bernanke suggested the economy seemed to be stabilizing, but he saw no quick recovery. Speaking at the annual Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Bernanke said that economic activity 'appears to be leveling out in the United States and abroad.' Although prospects for growth 'appear good' in the near term, he said, a recovery probably would be 'relatively slow at first, with unemployment declining only gradually from high levels.' The emerging recovery also could be different in another big way: Past economic expansions have favored the South and West, says Chad Wilkerson, a Fed economist in Oklahoma City who studied the nation's eight prior economic cycles from 1957 to 2003. Part of that trend was driven by heavy migration to the Sun Belt, which fueled demand for housing and services. But the real-estate plunge in Florida, Georgia and the Southwest has wreaked havoc. And losses in wages, housing wealth and retirement plans have curtailed people's migration plans. Older people from New York and New Jersey, in particular, once flocked to Florida every year. Not so much anymore. Florida's population is shrinking for the first time since the 1940s. 'Baby boomers are in between now. Even ones who could potentially retire are wary now,' said William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. For the Sunbelt, he said, there won't be a quick rebound: 'In turning off the spigot of migration, you have a different model.' Migration patterns have turned more favorable in sparsely populated parts of America's midsection, where unemployment was running as low as 4.2 percent in South Dakota and 6.5 percent or less in Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma. These and other states have been supported by demand for commodities, whether natural gas or corn, but they also avoided the housing bust. 'Nobody really went on a binge and so nobody went broke,' said John Schwietz of Omaha, who found a job recently as manager of international credit at Valmont Industries, a maker of farm equipment and other products. But Nebraska and other states like it are too small to drive growth nationally, and commodity prices are notoriously susceptible to wild fluctuations. It's hard to tell which areas and industries will lead a recovery, said Jonas Prising, president of the North American operations of Manpower, a labor supply company. 'During other recessions, employers hired in anticipation of a recovery,' he said. 'This time, they will hire when they see it.' Staff writer Peter Hong contributed to this report. 