LANSING — The jobless rate for Otsego County edged downward in March, but state employment officials are looking for increased employment over the next several months.

Like in Otsego County, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates edged downward over the month in 12 of Michigan’s 17 major labor market areas, including the Northeast Michigan area, of which Otsego County is part, according to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth (DLEG).

Otsego County’s unemployment rate dropped to 10.4 percent in March, compared with 11 percent in February. Montmorency County saw its rate drop one-tenth of a percentage point to 16 percent in March, from 16.1 percent in February.

The unemployment rate for the Northeast region slipped to 12.3 percent in March from 13 percent in February.

“What we saw was a little decline, which is fairly typical in what we see from February to March,” Jim Rhein, DLEG economic analyst said. “The March rates declined somewhat, but the rates are still very high and seasonal. Nothing really changed during the winter. There were not large increases in employment.”

In March, total state employment and labor force levels increased slightly in the majority of regions even as the  state’s unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a percent from 7.7 in February to 7.9 in March.

The national jobless rate for April was at 5.0 percent, down a tenth of a percent from March’s 5.1 rate. Rhein said that the loss of 20,000 jobs nationally in April was down from what was expected, but still represented four months of consecutive employment decline.

As for Northern Michigan, the coming months should see an increase in seasonal employment, Rhein indicated.

“What we should see in the next several months is historically large employment increases in Northern Michigan,” he said.

From February to March, jobless rate reductions in 12 regions ranged from 0.1 to 0.7 of a percentage point with an average decrease of 0.4 of a percentage point. The unemployment rate in the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was unchanged in March.

Unemployment rates rose over the month in four areas, including the Flint, Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, and Bay City MSAs. These four regions were all impacted by strike-related layoffs in the auto industry.

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