RALEIGH, (SGRToday.com) - The state's unemployment rate ticked up to 5.4 percent in March, but three North Carolina economists are casting the data as good news for North Carolina's job market. The rate was 5.3 percent in February.

N.C. State University economist Mike Walden told the Raleigh News & Observer he would ignore the rise "because it is totally due to a large influx of people coming back to the labor force."

The rate was 6.4 percent one year ago. Today, roughly 118,000 more people are drawing paychecks today than were one year ago.

Wells Fargo economist Mark Vitner told the paper: "We are seeing significant job growth across virtually every industry."

John Bethune of Barton College told the Associated Press the decline in labor participation has abated and the uptick is "fairly insignificant."