Layoffs in February pulled back from a surge in January as the county’s unemployment rate returned to below 10% last month, according to the state Employment Development Department.
Unemployment here was 9.7% last month, down from January’s 10.2%—the peak for the county in the current downturn.
A year earlier, unemployment here was 7.9%.
For the 12 months through February, employers here shed 53,000 workers, a 3.8% decline.
The drop was steep but marks a return to the moderating job losses seen in the second half of 2009.
That trend was broken in January, when employers here laid off 72,100 workers from a year earlier, a 5% decline.
That was the highest level of layoffs since the peak of the recession in spring 2009.
The county saw a gain in jobs from January to February.
Nonfarm employment here rose less than 1% to 1.35 million workers from January to February.
Professional and business services saw the biggest monthly gain, adding 3,100 jobs.
Administrative and support services, which includes temporary help, made up about 100 of those jobs.
Manufacturing, one of the harder hit sectors during the downturn, added 2,800 jobs from January to February.
Construction, the hardest hit employment sector, saw a los of 1,600 jobs from January to February.
The loss was partly due to recent rain, which put off work at construction sites.
On a yearly basis, construction led job losses in February with a loss of 14,400 jobs, followed by manufacturing with 11,000 jobs lost.
