Washington state's unemployment rate falls to 5.9 percent in March

(Reuters) - Washington state's unemployment rate fell to 5.9 percent in March from 6.3 percent both in February and a year earlier as payrolls expanded in all major industries except one, state officials said on Wednesday. The unemployment rate in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area was 4.5 percent in March, according to Washington's Employment Security Department, which estimated the state added 100,900 jobs in March from a year earlier, with 88,900 new jobs in the private sector and 12,000 new jobs in the public sector. (Reporting by Jim Christie in San Francisco; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)