While Washington’s unemployment rate rose slightly, King County had the lowest rate – 3.6 percent – statewide in March, according to the state Employment Security Department.

King County’s neighboring counties, Snohomish and Pierce, had 4.3 and 5.9 unemployment last month.

The bad news in the statewide numbers is that unemployment increased to 4.9 percent and 3,200 non-agriculture jobs were lost, the first month-over-month decline in the number of jobs in Washington since September 2007. The good news is that the jobless rate was only four-tenths of a percentage point higher than February’s near-record-low of 4.5 percent.

In addition, “March was the 18th month in a row that Washington’s unemployment was under 5 percent,” said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee.

The national unemployment rate in March was 5.1 percent, an increase from 4.8 percent in February.