The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 7.6% in March. This was largely due to a sizeable (496,000) decrease in the labor force. Of the 496,000 people who exited the labor force in March, 206,000 were employed while 290,000 were unemployed.
The labor force participation rate ticked down 0.2 percentage point to 63.3 percent in March. The labor force participation rate has not been that low since May 1979.
