March 23rd, 2019 by WCBC Radio

Maryland lost 5,800 jobs in February, according to jobs date released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, though the state’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent. The rate has remained steady since December but was down from 4.2 in February last year. The rate is just below the national rate of 3.8 percent. The number of people participating in the state’s labor force also ticked up slightly to just over 3.2 million, which makes this a “mixed report,” said Andy Bauer, a senior regional economist in the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Officials from the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation noted that the state is still ahead with jobs. The number of jobs was up by 12,900 year-over-year, a increase of 0.5 percent.