The unemployment rate in the Buffalo Niagara region held steady at 9.2 percent in February

as the local job market showed signs that it is beginning to stabilize, the state Labor

Department reported Thursday.

While jobless levels remain at their highest point since the mid-1980s, the pace of job

losses over the last year has continued to slow, with the region losing 6,300 jobs since

February 2009, a drop of 1.2 percent.

That decline is the slowest year-over-year drop since the job market began its steep

decline in December 2008 and is less than half the rate of decline the region experienced for

most of last year.

One reason the rate of decline has slowed is because the downturn in the job market already

was in full swing a year ago, making comparisons with last February more favorable.

Yet the local job market also showed some signs of greater strength last month, adding

2,300 jobs since January. That was nearly six times stronger than the increase in jobs from

January to February last year, and matches the average uptick in jobs during those months over

the last 10 years.

Still, the 525,800 jobs in the Buffalo Niagara region were the fewest for any February

since 1994, and the least for any February since 1994, the labor department reported..

While the region has dodged the more severe job losses the country as a whole has

experienced during the recession, the area's job market still has steadily weakened over the

last 16 years. That's because, unlike the rest of the country, it hasn't experienced robust

job growth during the headier days that followed each of the last two recessions.

The manufacturing sector continued to be the biggest drag on the local job market,

shedding 5,100 jobs over the last year, or nearly 10 percent of the region's factory jobs.

Over the last nine years, two of every five local factory jobs has disappeared, carving a huge

hole in the region's economy that has not been filled by growth in other sectors.

While manufacturing jobs account for 80 percent of the region's total total job losses over

the last year, the local service sector has begun to stabilize, losing just 900 jobs over the

last year, a drop of 0.2 percent.

A flurry of hiring at stores helped boost the number of retail jobs by more than 3 percent

over the last year, while hiring also increased in management and administrative positions,

along with foodservice, health care and social assistance jobs.