By Stacia Kalinoski

LANE COUNTY, Ore. -- Lane County's unemployment rate is down according to numbers just released Tuesday.

The county's unemployement rate fell by almost a full percentage point, even though the state's rose slightly. Lane County dropped from 11.6% in December to 10.8% in January. Meanwhile, the state's rate rose from 10.6% to 10.7%.

Regional Labor Economist Brian Rooney says January typically loses seasonal construction and holiday retail jobs, so he's happy to see seasonal job losses are less than they normally are this time of year.

"In total, we lost 3,900 in total non-farmer pay roll employment. But normally we lose about 4,600 this time of year. So even though we had job loses, it's less than what we normally see for January, and that's kind of a good sign," he said.

The current number of unemployed people in lane county is 1,542. That's down 430 from last year. Rooney doesn't expect to see another big improvement until the March report, when seasonal jobs like construction pick back up again.