EAU CLAIRE — The city of Eau Claire recorded one of the state’s lowest unemployment rates in April, according to a news release from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

According to preliminary, seasonally unadjusted data, the city had a jobless rate of 2.5% last month, compared with 2.8% in March and 2.3% in the year-ago period. Among the state’s 35 largest municipalities, only Madison, Fitchburg and Sun Prairie had lower rates than Eau Claire in April.

Eau Claire County came in at 2.6%, lower than 3% the previous month but slightly higher than 2.4% in April 2023. Chippewa County had a lower rate last month — 3.3% — than in both March (4.3%) and the year-ago period (3.6%). Dunn County’s rate slid to 3.2% in April from 4.2% the previous month and 3.4% year ago.

“Historically, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has been lower than the U.S. as a whole,” Dennis Winters, DWD chief economist, told Wisconsin Public Radio. “Wisconsin is a hardworking state.”

At the state level, Wisconsin’s seasonally adjusted rate inched down to 2.9% in April, a full percentage point lower than the national rate. The state’s labor force participation rate was level at 65.6% and remained significantly higher than the national rate of 62.7%.

Wisconsin added 900 nonfarm jobs month over month in the latest report, and 24,100 compared with April of last year.

Even after the layoffs of around 1,400 employees that resulted from two HSHS hospitals and Prevea clinics closing in the Chippewa Valley, the state added 1,300 jobs in April and 10,800 over the past year in the health care and social assistance sector.

“The health care industry continues to grow, even with the layoffs we’ve seen in parts of the state,” Winters told WPR. “We expect health care services and employment to continue to increase with the age demographics.”