(LANSING) – The counties in Southwest Michigan saw their unemployment rates go down from January to February.

The Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget released the February data which shows that St. Joseph County had a drop in unemployment from 5.9 to 5.2 percent. That's a decrease of seven-tenths of a percent.

The largest drop in the area was in Branch County, where the unemployment rate went down from 6.1 to 4.9 percent, which is a decrease of 1.1 percent.

Hillsdale County dropped from 6.3 to 5.4 percent which is a decrease of nine-tenths of a percent. Cass County saw a half a percent drop, going from 6.1 to 5.6 percent.

Statewide, the unemployment rate in Michigan was a 5.1 percent in February. That's a full one percent drop from 6.1 percent in January, but still higher than the February 2020 rate in Michigan which was 3.8
percent.

Wayne Rourke, Associate Director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives says labor force levels declined for the second consecutive month in most Michigan regions. He says significant recalls of workers occurred in the Leisure and Hospitality sector.