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Maryland's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to a 16-year high in January at 6.2 percent, while the state continued to shed jobs, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Wednesday.

But the state's jobless rate was still well below the national rate of 7.6 percent in January and 8.1 percent in February. State rates generally are released about a month after national ones. The last time Maryland's rate hit 6.2 percent was in April 1993; the last time it was higher was in December 1992, according to federal figures.

The state shed 39,000 jobs from January 2008 to this past January, the Labor Department reported. Some 185,000 Marylanders were unemployed in January, up by 15 percent from the previous month and by 72 percent from a year ago.

Nationally, the number of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 1 percent to 654,000 for the week ended Saturday from the previous week, the department reported Thursday. The increase was 88 percent from the same week a year ago.

In Maryland, initial unadjusted unemployment claims in the week ended Feb. 28 increased by 9 percent to about 7,700 from the previous week and was up by 78 percent from a year ago.

Maryland officials encouraged unemployed residents to pursue job training and unemployment benefits services at one-stop career centers.

"While Maryland continues to fare better than the nation as a whole, the effects of the recession are felt far and wide across our state," said Thomas E. Perez, secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, in a statement.

Some companies such as Arbitron have recently added jobs in the state, but others announced more layoffs. That included M&T Bank Corp. of Buffalo, N.Y., which plans to shed 521 jobs from Provident Bankshares Corp. of Baltimore once its $401 million acquisition is completed as expected this spring. Most of the cuts will come from duplicate positions in Baltimore, and M&T is retaining 71 percent of the Provident work force, or 1,305 employees, said Philip Hosmer, an M&T spokesman.

Companies in Maryland filed notice with the state for 1,624 layoffs in the first two months this year, more than double the number in the same months in 2008.

Industries that shed the highest percentage of jobs in the state in the past year were mining and construction, arts and entertainment, and finance and insurance. Those that gained the highest percentage of positions were federal government, health care and social assistance, and educational services.

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) urged legislators to pass a bill his office wrote to extend unemployment benefits to part-time employees who work at least 15 hours per week. The legislation is supported by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce but opposed by other business groups, including the Maryland chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.

If that bill is passed, expenditures from the unemployment insurance trust fund would increase by $5.7 million in fiscal 2009, according to a report by the state Department of Legislative Services. The unemployment insurance program is financed through employer taxes.

The Senate passed the part-time legislation last week, while the House had yet to vote on it, as of Thursday.

Bright spot in job gains

One bright spot is that Maryland led the nation in job gains for the month of January from December, with 6,000, according to federal data. Washington, D.C., was not far behind, with 5,800, and was one of the few entities to post job gains over the past year.

The year-over-year review is generally a more accurate gauge than the monthly picture, as it shows the trend over a longer time period, state officials said.

Some of the first signs of progress from the new $787 billion federal stimulus plan will come when state and local governments keep employees on payrolls, said Heather Boushey, a senior economist with Washington think tank Center for American Progress, in a report.

"States and localities facing budget crunches will be able to tap into federal funds to avoid layoffs," Boushey said. The construction sector should also see employment gains in upcoming months, she said.

TrimTabs Investment Research of Sausalito, Calif., which uses daily income tax withholding data from the Treasury Department to estimate changes in employment, predicted that the national economy will continue to lose at least 650,000 jobs in each of the next four to six months.

Montgomery County is better off than many areas, although it is not immune to the recession, County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) said this week. The county's unemployment rate of 3.9 percent in December was the second lowest in the state behind Howard County's, although it has climbed from 2.5 percent in December 2007, according to unadjusted federal figures.

Montgomery's economy is tied in a major way to the residential real estate market and will likely not see any substantial improvement until that changes, Leggett said.

"Many projects are at a standstill because they can't get financing," he said.

RESOURCES

State job search information: 888-881-0068, www.mwejobs.com

Unemployment benefits information: 877-293-4125, www.mdunemployment.com