Following weak national employment growth last month, Massachusetts’s economy slowed further in March as employers shed jobs and workers gave up job searches. Employers shed 5,500 jobs, the second consecutive month of losses for the state, after labor officials revised a initially reported 500-job increase to and 800 job decline, the state Executive Office of [...]

Illinois’ unemployment rate held at 9.5 percent in March, according to preliminary data released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent in March. The number of unemployed in Illinois rose by 1,700 to 629,200 in March, down 123,000 from Illinois’ unemployment peak of 11.3 percent in [...]

The unemployment rate in Michigan dropped to 8.5 percent in March, according to a press releasefrom the state’s Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB) on Wednesday. The new numbers represent a 0.3 percent decrease in unemployment from the month before. Officials were quick to point out on Wednesday that for the first time in months, the drop in the unemployment rate [...]