Iowa’s jobless rate remained at three-point-four percent in March, and Workforce analyst Anne Wagner notes that it signals only a very small drop in the number of people working. She says the state’s labor force is 1.6 million, and the number of people employed fell by just one thousand. Wagner adds there was a bright note in factory employment. In non-farm jobs, an encouraging sign is a gain of 500 jobs in manufacturing, the first monthly gain there in some time. Wagner says managers see encouraging signs of recovery in manufacturing, with their orders up for the coming months.