The March 2010 unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent for the third month in a row. But the black unemployment rate rose to 16.5 percent from 15.8 percent the month before.
On the other side of the jobs equation, only the financial and information sectors saw job losses in March, 2010. Jobs were added in health care, temporary services, mining and manufacturing sectors, as well as employment in the federal government due to the hiring of census workers. Jobs in the construction sector held steady, after facing months of losses.