The unemployment rate in Mesa County surged to 9.9 percent in March, as the regional job market continues to reel from an epic pullback in the natural resources sector and a down housing market.

One year earlier the jobless rate stood at 8.3 percent in Mesa County. Data are seasonally adjusted.

The latest jobless reading was the highest in the state for metropolitan areas, a position Mesa County has held for many months, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

That distinction is not likely to change any time soon.

“I don't see it improving a lot,” said economist Tucker Hart Adams, a senior partner at Summit Economics LLC in Colorado Springs.

She reasoned there simply is not enough hiring in any sector to offset the number of jobs lost during the past year in oil and gas industry, as well as construction.

“There is some hiring but it is mostly (U.S.) census workers,” Adams said. “That is not forever — just a few months.

“When you look beyond that … there is not much going on.”

As a result the number of employed people in Mesa County decreased to about 72,500 in March from 76,900 in March 2009. That marked a drop of 5.7 percent in the year-over-year period.

Statewide, the unemployment rate inched up to 7.9 percent in March from 7.7 percent in March 2009.

Employment prospects appeared best in Boulder County, which saw its jobless rate drop to 6.1 percent last month from 6.5 percent in March 2009. The most recent reading was the lowest rate in the state for a metropolitan area.

Larimer County ranked second with an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent in March, or unchanged from March 2009.

Nationally the jobless rate came in at 9.7 percent in March, up from 8.6 percent in the same period a year earlier, but unchanged from January and February of 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.