MD Unemployment Rate Falls Below 7%
The number of employed Marylanders jumped by almost 12,000 in March, bringing the state’s unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) to 6.9% and below 7% for the first time in two years. The unemployment rate had fallen by a percentage point over the previous year and by 0.5% since December alone. Since early last year, the rural sections of Maryland have seen the sharpest declines in the unemployment rate [Table 1]. The seasonally unadjusted rate fell by 1.3% in nine eastern shore counties and by 1.5% in Western Maryland.

The state continues to perform well post-recession, recovering over 37,000 or 25.5% of the jobs it lost since the 2007-2009 recession [Table 2], 17th best in the country and comparing favorably to the 17.1% of jobs recovered nationwide. In Table 2, job gains for each state are measured as the number of jobs added from the time state employment reached its low point since the recession onset, to March 2011. Since February 2010, professional and business services, health services employment, retail trade and government (mostly federal) have accounted for the bulk of the jobs added [Figure 2].

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