The local unemployment rate dropped dramatically in March.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry (L&I), the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for Warren County was 4.2 percent in March thanks to an additional 200 people joining the workforce.

The bulk of the change in the workforce was in the area of professional and business services, according to L&I.

The rate is down a full point from the 5.2 percent reported for February and matches the state-wide unemployment rate for March.

The report bucks and upward trend that started in October when the county’s rate rose from a three-year low of 4.0 percent in September to 4.1 percent and continued to rise to 4.2 percent, 4.8 percent, and 5.1 percent through January.

Regionally, only Meadville, at 4.1 percent, had a lower unemployment rate in March, with Oil City coming in at 4.2, Bradford and Erie both at 4.5, and Forest County having a rate of 5.3 percent.

The national rate was 3.5 percent.

According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor, seasonal adjustment “is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal how employment and unemployment changes from month-to-month.”

“These seasonal adjustments make it easier to observe the cyclical, underlying trend and other nonseasonal movements in the series,” making it possible to make month-to-month comparisons.