Phila. region’s unemployment rate 8.4% in March

Unemployment fell to 8.4 percent in March in the Philadelphia region that includes parts of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday. That's down from 8.8 percent in February and 8.6 percent a year ago.

The national unemployment rate in March was 8.2 percent. Gloucester, Burlington and Camden counties, which together form the Camden metropolitan division, had a 9.7 percent unemployment rate, while Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware counties, averaged together, had an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent in March.

— Jane M. Von Bergen