Pa. jobless rate drops again, at lowest in 2 years

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate continued to drop in March for a third straight month and is now at its lowest level in two years, although a separate survey of employers shows that payrolls dipped slightly.

The state Department of Labor and Industry says that the unemployment rate in March was 7.8 percent, a drop of 0.2 percent. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 8.8 percent in March.

A separate survey of employers shows non-farm payrolls in Pennsylvania dropped by 1,700.

Labor economist Mark Price of the Harrisburg-based Keystone Research Center says the drop in payrolls may be a quirk in the collection of data, and that viewing payroll numbers over a wider period than a month shows them continuing to rise.

He says the report is still a reasonably good one.