California's reported unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) in March improved 0.2 point from February number to 8.3%. 

The improvement, however, came primarily from a drop in the labor force as employment remained largely unchanged at growth of only 9,900.  Unemployment dropped 49,600, and the labor force contracted by 39,700.

The reported national numbers show US unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) improving 0.2 point to 6.0%.  In contrast to California, employment was up 609,000, and unemployment down by 262,000.  The national labor force expanded by 347,000.

Nonfarm wage and salary jobs rose 119,600 (seasonally adjusted) in March, while the gains in February were revised to 156,100 from the previously reported 141,000.  Nonfarm jobs nationally were up 916,000.

As of the March numbers, California has regained 44% of the Nonfarm jobs lost to the state shutdowns.  The US in total has regained 62%.

California job growth was led by Accommodation & Food Services (35,700), Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities (15,900), and Professional, Scientific & Technical Services (14,100).  Losses were in only two industries, Finance & Insurance (-300) and Real Estate & Rental & Leasing (-300).  The numbers shown in the chart below are the seasonally adjusted numbers.

The number of counties with an unemployment rate at 10% or above eased to 10. The unadjusted rates ranged from 4.8% in Marin to 15.7% in Imperial.

In February, the unemployment rate for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim MSA was 9.9%, putting that region into a tie with Fresno MSA for the 19th worst unemployment rate among the 369 MSAs in the nation.  El Centro MSA (Imperial County) again had the worst unemployment rate in the nation.  Looking at the county rather than the MSA numbers in California, Los Angeles County at 10.9% had the seventh worst unemployment rate in California in March.