State adds jobs for fourth straight month

More businesses in our state are hiring and the unemployment rate continues to fall. The jobless rate for January is at 8.3 percent, that’s down from 8.6 percent in December.

The state Employment Security department reports that employers added 13,200 jobs in January, the fourth straight month of job gains.

“And in fact, now 16 of the last 17 months have had job gains,” said state economist Dave Wallace.

Most of the new jobs come from the private sector, including retail and professional services. Government, particularly local government, continues to shed jobs.

Wallace says the jobs recovery is steady, but slow.

“One of the things we do know about this recession and this recovery is that is has been slower than normal recessions,” said Wallace.

“It’s about as positive as I’ve seen in a long time,” added Wallace. “It’s hard to find negatives in it.”