Tennessee's unemployment rate for March was 4.5 percent, a decrease from the February rate of 4.9 percent. That's according to Tennessee Labor Commissioner Burns Phillips.

The U.S. unemployment rate for March was 5.0 percent, a slight increase of one tenth of a percentage point over the previous month.

Over the past year, Tennessee unemployment rate decreased from 6.0 percent to 4.5 percent, while the national rate declined from 5.5 percent to 5.0 percent. The 4.5% rate in Tennessee is the lowest rate since 2007. County rates will be released later this week.