Chart 3

The title is "U.S. Virgin Islands Employment Growth Has Sharply Turned Negative after Holding Up Well during the Recession."

A line chart that shows the year-to-year change in employment levels in the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands, from 2000 through the first quarter of 2003. Employment grew by 2.53 percent in the United States in the first quarter of 2000, compared to a year earlier. The growth rate steadily declined to minus 1.24 percent in the first quarter of 2002. U.S. employment growth improved to a rate of minus 0.14 percent in the third quarter of 2003. In the Virgin Islands, employment levels declined by 1.94 percent in the first quarter of 2000, compared to a year earlier. The employment growth rate shot up to 10.30 percent in the first quarter of 2001, then fell to minus 2.95 percent in the third quarter of 2002. Although the Virgin Islands employment growth rate improved to minus 1.63 percent in the fourth quarter of that year, it dropped again to minus 2.54 percent in the first quarter of 2003.