HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania's employers slashed more than 30,000 jobs in March as unemployment hit its highest rate in more than 16 years and the recession continued to ravage payrolls, according to new state figures released Thursday.

However, federal officials added back 7,700 jobs to a stark February job-loss estimate, prompting Gov. Ed Rendell to strike a positive note.

After March's loss of 30,500 jobs, Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted total of nonfarm jobs dropped to below 5.7 million for the first time in four years.

NEW YORK - Citigroup's problems are far from over, but it had its best quarter since late 2007.The bank reported a loss to common shareholders of $966 million after massive loan losses and dividends to preferred stockholders. But before paying those dividends, the bank had net income of $1.6 billion.Overall, Citigroup's results were better than expected. The company reported a loss per share of 18 cents, which was narrower than the 34 cents analysts predicted. A year ago, Citigroup suffered a loss of more than $5 billion.

WASHINGTON - General Electric said today its first-quarter earnings fell 36 percent on sharply lower profits at its troubled finance arm, but the results beat Wall Street forecasts in a glimmer of good news for the struggling company.GE, which has a stake in almost every sector of the economy, from light bulbs to locomotives, posted earnings from continuing operations of $2.92 billion or 26 cents per share. That surpassed the 21 cents per share forecast by analysts.