Mercer County's jobless rate fell slightly from 6 percent in February to 5.8 percent in March as more local residents found work.

The rate is on par with the county's March 2001 rate and was just below the state figure of 5.9 percent and national 6.1 percent rate.

The county ranked ninth among the states 43 labor market areas, tied with the Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton labor market and Clarion in terms of the best jobless rate and 20th among the state's 67 counties, tied with Clarion.

Figures for March show the county's labor force and number of employed each expanded by 200 from February to stand at 57,400 and 54,000 respectively. Since January 600 residents have entered or reentered the labor force with most successfully getting employment, said the state Department of Labor and Industry.

Still, the number of employed is off 900 from March 2001.

Those unemployed in March was unchanged at 3,400.

Service producing jobs declined by 200 from March 2001 as job gains in finance, insurance and real estate and services were reversed by job cutbacks in the remaining service producing industries.

Goods producing jobs held steady in March at 11,600. March's standstill in factory job levels following February's small increase, may signal this sector is close to bottoming out after seeing a downward trend in 2001.

Average weekly earnings of production workers were $631.18 in March. An increase of nearly one hour in the average workweek was the sole cause for the $13.93 improvement in average weekly pay.

Surrounding county's jobless rates were: