Wyoming's unemployment rate held steady in February at 4.0% according to a Senior Economist with the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.

David Bullard, with the department's Research and Planning Division, said it's not unusual for the state jobless rate to remain the same over the January-February period, as was the case this year.

But he noted the latest numbers are better than the state's 4.3% jobless rate in February of 2014, and significantly lower the the U.S. unemployment rate of 5.5% in February 2015.

Although most Wyoming counties showed little change between January and February, there were sizable drops in the Laramie County (down from 5.0% to 4.4%) and Sheridan County (down from 5.6% to 5.1%) unemployment rates.

Unemployment did increase in Sublette and Uinta Counties.

Bullard also says that while the state has seen some layoffs in the energy industry, so far there doesn't seem to be a "ripple effect" of  related layoffs in other industries.

He also says the energy layoffs so far have been small enough so that they are not having a big effect on the overall state jobless numbers.

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