The Wilmington area’s unemployment rate dropped for the second month in a row this year, according to state numbers released Wednesday.

The Wilmington area, which includes New Hanover and Pender counties, saw an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent in March, down from 4.8 percent in February 2017 and 4.8 percent a year ago, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.

This is the second time the unemployment rates, which are not seasonally adjusted, went down in 2017. The month of January kicked off the year with a tick up from December.

Across the state, unemployment rates decreased in 98 out of North Carolina’s 100 counties in March, increasing in one county and remaining the same in another.

In the tri-county area, New Hanover County had the lowest jobless rate in March at 4.3 percent. That number fell from 4.7 percent in February.

Pender County had a 4.7 percent jobless rate in March, compared to 5.2 percent in February. And in Brunswick County, the rate fell from 6.7 percent last month to 5.8 percent in March.

The statewide unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, stood at 4.7 percent, under February’s statewide rate at 5 percent and that same rate in March 2016.