Missouri?s labor market conditions steady

The Missouri Department of Economic Development reported March 22 that the state's labor market conditions were relatively unchanged in Febru-ary, as the national economy appeared to have either bottomed out or begun a recovery.

Missouri's unadjusted unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percent to 5.2 percent in Feb-ruary, which is only two-tenths of a point higher than a year ago.

The seasonally adjusted un-employment rate remained the same as January's figure at 4.7 percent, and only a tenth of a point above the February 2001 rate. Non-farm payroll employment decreased slightly, on a seasonally adjusted basis, after having shown a gain in January.

In the Springfield Metropol-itan Statistical Area, unemployment was at 4 percent, down one-tenth of a percent from January's 4.1 percent.

The Springfield MSA reflects unemployment for Greene, Webster and Christian counties. By county, unemployment in February was 3.7 percent in Greene County, down from 3.8 percent in January; 5.4 percent in Webster County, up from 4.7 percent in January; and 4.8 percent in Christian County, down from 4.9 percent in January.

The national unemployment rate also remained relatively unchanged at 5.5 percent (seasonally adjusted) in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Nine Missouri counties re-ported double-digit unemployment rates in February.

Payroll employment seems to have bottomed out after having dropped consistently since Feb-ruary 2001, just before the national recession began. Over that time period, seasonally adjusted employment fell by 52,100 jobs, or 1.9 percent. The majority of that drop has been in manufacturing, with almost all reported industries reporting at least some losses.

Most service-producing in-dustries have also shed jobs over the past year. Retail trade is an exception, as growth in the past couple of months seems to have lifted employment above the year-ago level, by about 3,500.

Health services have continued to be a source of strong growth, with employment in-creasing by 5,400 jobs since February 2001.

Business services employment has been pretty flat since about September 2001.

State and federal government employment has fallen over the past year, by 3,800 and 1,300 jobs, respectively. Local governments, including public schools, have added 4,000 jobs in the year.