Marianna, FL – The preliminary employment numbers released by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) show an unemployment rate of 4.8% in March 2021 for the 5-county region served by CareerSource Chipola (CSC). This decrease of 0.1% since February is indicative of the area’s ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The local unemployment rate for the area as a whole is down 0.7% from March 2020, as both the labor force and number of employed individuals continue to rebound. When compared to this time last year, the CSC region shows an increase of 422 individuals that have entered employment, and 295 fewer unemployed. “I’m really happy to see our five counties seeing an overall increase in the labor force and a decrease in our unemployment rate compared to both last month and last year,” says CSC Executive Director Richard Williams. “I’m hopeful this trend will continue, and we will see even more people employed in our region.”