The base private-sector (4,100, 0.3%) also strengthened in the state in March and has added more jobs over-the-year (13,500, 1.0%) than total nonfarm employment. Government supersectors (800, 0.3%) added employment this March as well but has remained a constraint on overall employment gains over-the-year (-4,100, -1.7%) and especially since the overall jobs recovery began. An additional 11,500 government supersector jobs have been lost since the recovery started in February 2010 (tribal casino employment on reservations is classified in local government and accounts for some of the weakness).

The employed are all persons who did any work as paid employees or in their own business during the survey week, or who have worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a family member. Persons temporarily absent from a job because of illness, bad weather, strike or for personal reasons are also counted as employed whether they were paid by their employer or were seeking other jobs.

The unemployed are all persons who did not work, but were available for work during the survey week (except for temporary illness) and made specific efforts to find a job in the prior four weeks. Persons waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not be looking for work to be classified as unemployed.