Indiana’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.2 percent in April, the lowest it’s been in more than two years, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development said Tuesday morning.

The rate fell even though Indiana lost 2,700 private-sector jobs during the month.

Indiana’s jobless rate last month declined by 0.3 percentage points compared with the previous month, matching the drop Indiana saw in March.

Indiana’s unemployment rate hasn’t been at 8.2 percent since December 2008.

“Indiana is 0.8 [percentage points] below the national rate for the first time since June 2003,” DWD Commissioner Mark W. Everson said. “The state’s rate has steadily decreased over the past year.”

The nation’s unemployment rate was at 9 percent in April.

Still, the state saw total employment fall by 2,700 from March to April, Indiana’s report said. Professional and business services and manufacturing showed the most significant declines.

Only three other states lost more jobs: Michigan, Minnesota and South Carolina.

Sectors adding jobs included private education and health services, and leisure and hospitality.

Indiana had the lowest unemployment rate in the Midwest in April. It was followed by Ohio at 8.6 percent, Illinois at 8.7 percent, Kentucky at 10 percent and Michigan at 10.2 percent.

The number of unemployed Hoosiers in April fell to 250,065 in April, from a revised 272,669 in March.

In the Indianapolis metropolitan area, the non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 7.6 percent in April, lower than the 8.1 percent in March and down significantly from the 9.3 percent in April 2010.

Comparisons of metro areas are more accurately made using the same months in prior years because the government does not adjust the figures for factory furloughs and other seasonal fluctuations.