March unemployment down in 21 states
Pennsylvania and 20 other states saw their unemployment rates decrease in March, the U.S. Labor Department said. Meanwhile, 17 states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia had increases, and 12 states had no change, the department reported.
Pennsylvania and 20 other states saw their unemployment rates decrease in March, the U.S. Labor Department said. Meanwhile, 17 states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia had increases, and 12 states had no change, the department reported.
Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 6.0 percent in March, from February's 6.2 percent, and was down significantly from 7.7 percent in Pennsylvania in March 2013.
New Jersey's unemployment rate ticked up to 7.2 percent in March, from 7.1 percent in February. But, New Jersey's March rate also was down from 8.7 percent in March 2013.
Forty-six states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier and four states had increases.
The national jobless rate in March was unchanged from February at 6.7 percent.
Rhode Island had the highest unemployment rate among the states in March, 8.7 percent, the Labor Department said. North Dakota again had the lowest jobless rate, 2.6 percent.
- Reid Kanaley