March 2000 — 2000-04-21

Regional and state unemployment rates remained generally stable in March. All four regions posted little or no change over the month, and 40 states and the District of Columbia recorded shifts of 0.3 percentage point or less, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The national jobless rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent. Nonfarm employment increased in 46 states. The Midwest continued to have the lowest regional unemployment rate, 3.3 percent in March, while the West again had the highest rate, 4.5 percent. The Northeast region had the lowest jobless rate in its series, 3.7 percent. (Virtually all regional and state series begin in 1978.) Compared with a year earlier, jobless rates were down by 0.7 percentage point in the Northeast, 0.6 point in the West, and 0.3 point in both the Midwest and South.