By KRWG News
New Mexico – New Mexico's jobless rate was 8.5 percent in December, unchanged from that of November.
The December rate, however, was higher than the 8.2 percent reported in December 2009.
The national unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent last month.
The state Department of Workforce Solutions says New Mexico lost 3,400 jobs from December 2009 to December 2010, but is continuing a slowly improving trend that began several months ago.
The agency also reports some sectors are seeing job growth, including the educational and health services industry, the mining sector, manufacturing and the miscellaneous other services category.
Nine other sectors in New Mexico lost jobs.
Those include professional and business services, retail, wholesale, leisure and hospitality, construction, transportation and utilities, information, financial activities and government.
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Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.