Springfield's unemployment rate continues to drop

The Springfield metropolitan statistical area's unemployment rate dropped for the second consecutive month.  

The five-county Springfield MSA comprising Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk and Dallas counties had a jobless rate of 3.6% in March, down from a revised February rate of 4%, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics news release. The February unemployment rate decreased from 4.2% in January.

All eight Missouri metro areas measured by the BLS posted decreases in March unemployment rates.

The MSAs, ranked by their March unemployment rates, are:
•    Columbia, 3%, down from 3.5% in February;
•    Jefferson City, 3.2%, down from 4%;
•    Springfield, 3.6%, down from 4%;
•    St. Joseph, 3.7%, down from 4.4%;
•    Cape Girardeau, 3.9%, down from 4.4%;
•    Joplin, 3.9%, down from 4.3%;
•    Kansas City, 4.2%, down from 4.8%; and
•    St. Louis, 4.8%, down from 5.3%.

Missouri's unemployment rate in March dropped to 4.4% from 5.2% in February, according to the release. The BLS data is not seasonally adjusted.

Nationally, compared with the same month a year earlier, March unemployment rates were higher in 308 of the 389 metro areas measured by the BLS, lower in 75 and unchanged in six. The Springfield MSA's March 2020 unemployment rate was 3.8%.