Employment in the Pittsburgh region dropped to its lowest level in nearly a decade in March, according to figures released today by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

The regional unemployment rate remains lower than the nationwide rate, with the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical area posting a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 7.2 percent, as opposed to the 8.5 percent rate nationwide. The statewide unemployment rate was 7.8 percent for March. The latest unemployment figure of 7.2 percent is an increase of three-tenths of a percentage point from last month.

Regionally, the employment numbers show that gains in the number of jobs that had been created since the beginning of the millennium have been wiped out in this downturn.

The peak level of jobs in the last 10 years was in February 2001 when the Pittsburgh area was home to 1.16 million jobs. The previous drop from that before this latest downturn was in March 2005 when there were 1.13 million jobs in the region. The number of jobs climbed again after the 2005 lull to reach 1.15 million in August 2008, but as of March 2009 it dropped to 1,126,800. The last time the number of jobs was below 1.13 million was in May 1999.

Robert Dye, a senior economist for PNC Financial Services, said the dip in jobs that has erased any gains this century is "not just a Pittsburgh phenomenon. We can plot similar patterns for most of the U.S. That is a characteristic of this recession -- it's not quick. It is going to leave an imprint on the U.S. economy that is going to take time to recover from."

Mr. Dye said it would take years to get back to normal and up to a decade to even determine what normal is going to be.

"This is such a gut-wrenching change in this economy," he said.

Locally, in the seven counties that make up the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, Allegheny County had the lowest unemployment with a seasonally adjusted rate of 6.6 percent. Butler County, which had lower unemployment than Allegheny County in March of last year, now has a jobless rate of 7 percent; however, there are still only 6,800 people in Butler County who are unemployed, as opposed to the 42,300 who are out of work in Allegheny County.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for the remaining five surrounding counties were: Washington County, 7.5 percent; Westmoreland County, 7.8 percent; Beaver County, 8.1 percent; Fayette County, 8.7 percent; and Armstrong County, 9.3 percent.

In job statistics that were not seasonally adjusted, the goods producing sectors had no net loss of jobs from February because the construction industry is gearing up for the season, offsetting job losses in mining and logging.

Service jobs added 5,000 jobs, but clothing stores and bars and restaurants added fewer people in March than the sector tended to add in March of previous years.

Overall, in a year over year comparison, the service sector in the Pittsburgh region lost 11,300 jobs, the state figures show.