Unemployment is down, but so are the number of jobs.

Employment numbers are critical in determining the health of the economy, but the numbers for March offer no clear signal, according to the State’s Employment Security Department. That’s because two separate surveys appeared to find conflicting results. The unemployment rate, which is based on a survey that counts those who are working versus those who are unemployed but are actively looking for work, showed an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent in March, down from 7.5 percent the year before. Yet a separate survey that is based on questions to employers showed 5,500 fewer jobs in the state.

Weve seen a lot of volatility in the job-survey results, but the trend over the past year shows were gaining jobs, said Anneliese Vance-Sherman, a labor economist with Employment Security. She points out that broader numbers that include people who are no longer working because they are discouraged as well as those who are working parttime but would like to be working fulltime, dropped in 2012 to 16.9 percent. Those numbers were above 18 percent at the depth of the recession.

Industries with the most estimated job gains in March were education and health services, up 1,800; manufacturing, up 900; retail, up 500; construction, up 400; and wholesale trade, up 200.

Industries showing the most job losses last month included government, down 4,600 jobs; professional and business services, down 2,500; other services, down 1,000; financial activities, down 900; and information, down 200. Within the government sector, 1,500 of the job losses were in state agencies; 1,300 were in public higher education; 1,200 were in local government, mostly in K-12 schools; and 600 were from federal employment.

In March, an estimated 254,000 people (seasonally adjusted) in Washington were unemployed and looking for work. That includes 136,524 who claimed unemployment benefits last month.