At the start of February, the unemployment rates reached 3.9%, up from 3.7% at the start of January but below the figure of 4.2% report last year at this time. The unemployment rate nationally for January was 4.2%.

The county with the lowest unemployment was Yavapai County, in northwestern Arizona, with a rate of just 2.6%. Prescott, which lies about 100 miles north of Phoenix, is the largest city in Yavapai County. Yuma County, which in the very southwestern corner of the state, posted the highest unemployment rate at 24.9%.

The unemployment rate in Phoenix at the start of February was 2.7%, up slightly from the start of January. Valley economists say that the up-tick is a normal seasonal adjustment, when a number of businesses shed employees brought on during the year-end holiday rush.

But there are signs that the rate of new job creation is slowing, says Dan Anderson, a research administrator for the Arizona Department of Economic Security. From January 2000 to January 2001, about 75,000 jobs were created in the state, while during that same period a year earlier approximately 100,000 jobs were created. Anderson says the slowdown is not an indication of a recession by any means, but just a slow down in growth.

A number of Valley businesses have reported coming layoffs, including two more on Wednesday. WorldCom Inc., the telecommunications company, said it will close a 70,000-sf call center in Chandler and layoff about 500 Valley workers. Chandler-based Microchip, a microchip manufacturing company, said it would lay off about 400 employees, about half of them coming from Arizona operations.