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More Clearwater jobs were added during March as the area’s unemployment rate declined.

During March, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area’s unemployment rate decreased from 13.2 percent to 12.7 percent, after staying steady for two months in a row. Despite that decrease, the area’s rate is still higher than the national average of 9.7 percent.

The Clearwater area had a total non-farm employment of 1,126,400 workers during March, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 1,121,400 workers during February, but a 2.6 percent decrease from last year.

Six industries managed to see a monthly increase in employment, including: construction by 200 jobs; professional and business services by 700 jobs; education and health services by 2,200 jobs; leisure and hospitality by 2,500 jobs; other services by 200 jobs; and government by 200 jobs.

Employment in the trade, transportation and utilities industry remained even over the month with 206,200 jobs. Employment in the mining and logging industry remained even over the month and year with 500 jobs.

Two industries saw a yearly increase in employment, with the education and health services industry growing the most. The industry employed 176,200 workers during March, up from 174,000 workers during February and a 2.3 percent increase from last year.

The government industry saw the only other yearly increase. The industry employed 160,000 workers during March, up from 159,800 workers during February and a 1.6 percent increase from March 2009.

Even though it added jobs over the month, the construction industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year. The industry employed 53,100 workers during March, up from 52,900 workers during February, but a 14.1 percent decrease from last year.

Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment include:

• Manufacturing by 10.4 percent
• Trade, transportation and utilities by 2.9 percent
• Information by 9.1 percent
• Financial activities by 3 percent
• Professional and business services by 1.6 percent
• Leisure and hospitality by 4.8 percent
• Other services by 2 percent

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Clearwater, job search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.