A Drop in Area Unemployment

AUSTIN – Unemployment in Texas went up slightly in March. But in East Texas, the Texas Workforce Commission reports the jobless numbers dropped last month. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 5.0% in March, up slightly from 4.9% in February. But the opposite was true for Tyler and Longview. Tyler’s unemployment rate was 4/7% last month. That is down from 5.1% in February. But it is slighty above the 4.3% figure in March of last year. Longview’s unemployment rate went from 6.6% in February to 6.3% last month. That is still above the 5.5% figure in March of 2016.