By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Missouri's unemployment rate has
increased slightly, but is still well below the national average.
The state Department of Economic Development says today that Missouri's 4.8 percent unemployement rate in March was up one-tenth of a percentage point from February.
But that seasonally adjusted unemployment is still a full percentage point below the national average. It's also seven-tenths
of a point below what it was in March 2002.
Although $2.6 million Missourians had jobs in March, the state lost more than five thousand jobs last month.
The highest unemployment rate in the state was 13.7 percent in Stone County, while the lowest was two percent in Boone County.