New Mexico's unemployment rate has risen slightly and state labor officials say December marked another month of negative job growth.
Labor officials say New Mexico's unemployment rate of 6.4 percent is up from 6.2 percent in November. But it's an improvement over November 2011 when the rate was 7.0 percent.
The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions says the rate of over-the-year job growth was negative 0.4 percent for December. That represents a loss of 3,200 jobs. The current round of job losses started in June after 10 months of growth.
The professional and business services industry reported a loss of 2,900 jobs over the year.
Officials say the leisure and hospitality industry was the biggest winner with a gain of 3,700 jobs since this time last year.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.