News File Photo A help-wanted sign is seen outside of a Dollar General store in Alpena in this April 2020 News archive photo.

ALPENA — Northeast Michigan’s unemployment rate fell last month despite the infusion of hundreds of people into the labor market, according to recently released state data.

After ticking upward in February, Northeast Michigan’s unemployment dropped to 6.5% in March from about 8% the month prior, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget says.

That’s despite three straight months of growth in the labor force — a measure of the number of people either working or looking for work. Across Alpena, Presque Isle, Montmorency, and Alcona counties, 690 people have joined the labor market from January through March, including 239 people last month.

Despite that jump, more people apparently found work, with the number of unemployed people — those looking for work but unable to find it — dropping by 353 people in March, the first drop in the number of jobless Northeast Michiganders in five months.

Northeast Michigan’s job market remains worse than the statewide market, where the unemployment rate fell from more than 5% in February to just 4.5% in March, about 2 percentage points better than Northeast Michigan’s rate.

Still, the good news from March shows a continuously improved Northeast Michigan economy from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. The region’s unemployment rate hit the double digits two years ago and stayed there for three straight months.

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Last month, Northeast Michigan’s unemployment rate varied widely from county to county, according to state data:

* Alpena County’s unemployment rate sat at 4.7%, tied with several other of Michigan’s 83 counties for the 33rd-best unemployment rate

* Presque Isle County’s rate stood at 9.2%, the fourth-worst in the state

* Montmorency County’s rate was 8.8%, the sixth-worst in the state

* Alcona County’s unemployment rate came in at 7.3%, ranking 71st among the 83 counties