Orange County continued a streak of yearly job losses in March as 21,300 fewer people were employed here from a year earlier.
The county had 1.5 million non-farm jobs in March, according to preliminary figures from the state Employment Development Department.
The county’s unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month, versus 3.5% a year earlier and 4.3% in February.
On a monthly basis, the county saw a 6,900 rise in nonfarm jobs from February.
Leisure and hospitality and business services led the monthly increase. Construction, a major source of job losses in the past year, saw a small uptick in March from February.
On a yearly basis, construction and mortgage-related job losses drove the decline in March, as they have for the past few months.
The county has been losing jobs on a yearly basis since November. Last month’s yearly loss marks five months of annual job losses, one short of economists’ local definition of a recession, six straight months of job losses.
