Unemployment in Mohave County started 2010 the same way it started 2009, remaining below 10 percent and possibly showing signs of stability, according to officials.

The Mohave County unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.9 percent in January from December 2009 (9.8 percent), after dropping below 10 percent in November for the first time in three months, according to the Arizona Department of Commerce. The unemployment rate in Arizona remained at 9.2 percent in January, while the nationwide unemployment rate dropped below 10 percent in January to 9.7 percent.

City officials are hopeful a new jobs fair in February, at Havasu Lanes in Lake Havasu City and Cerbat Lanes in Kingman, might help reduce local unemployment.

“We’ve stabilized, but there is a lot of work left to be done,” Mayor Mark Nexsen said. “Programs, such as the one at Havasu Lanes, have been productive and helpful, but we still obviously have a ways to go.”

Nexsen reiterated that he does not expect figures to drop to similar numbers as five years ago, but is seeing positive signs.

“It’s not going to be like it was, and people are realizing that,” he said. “The construction industry, and really no industry, is what it used to be but the work is out there. You just have to keep looking for it.”

All but one of the 11 state sectors posted losses in January, according to the DOC. “Natural Resources and Mining added just 100 jobs. Professional and Business Services had the largest decline — 13,100 — with most of the losses occurring in the Employment Services industry (-10,500). Trade, Transportation and Utilities was down 10,100 jobs, mostly in Retail Trade (- 8,500).  The Government sector lost 8,100 jobs, with 5,900 in Local Public Education due to the winter school break,” according to a DOC press release.

The minimum drops and slowing losses could be good signs for the state, said DOC Labor and Market Analyst Rick Van Sickle.

“Well, we’re still losing jobs, just not as severely as we were,” he said, adding the 9.2 percent unemployment rate is still not good. “For the last five months in a row, our losses have been slowing. Up until August (2009), we were losing at a faster and faster rate. The trend we see now is that rate has slowed down. Five months in a row is a good trend.” Van Sickle added that he does not expect the numbers to get much worse in the state.

“There comes a point when employers get as lean as they can get. You can only lay off so many people, and I think they’ve reached that point,” he said.

Arizona has had over-the-year job losses every month since February 2008.  Since the start of the recession in December 2007, Arizona has lost 347,600 non-farm jobs, according to the press release.  

For detailed information, graphs and charts on Arizona data, residents are asked to visit

www.workforce.az.gov.

You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com