Montana’s unemployment continued to drop in February, moving down 0.3 points to 6.2 percent.

Montana’s unemployment rate has been declining since August 2011. The national unemployment rate held steady at 8.3 percent for the month.

While the jobless rate in Montana went down, it was relatively stable on the Hi-Line.

The Hi-Line's jobless rate is traditionally higher during the winter.

“Montana’s economy continues to add jobs in 2012, with more than one thousand jobs in the last month, ” said Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly. The continued decline of Montana’s unemployment rate indicates that our economy performed better during the recession than first thought. ”

Along the Hi-Line in February:

• Blaine County's jobless rate remained stable at 6.5 percent. A total of 133 people were out of work.

• In Chouteau County, 4.7 percent of the workforce was jobless, down from 4.9 the previous month. In all, 110 people were out of work.

• Hill County's jobless rate was 5.8 percent, down from 5.9 percent. In all, 494 people were jobless.

• In Liberty County, 39 people or 5.6 of the workforce was jobless. That's up from 5.4 percent in January.

Estimates are that 1,200 new jobs were created in February, Kelly said. In the last year, 6,900 jobs were created in Montana, the commissioner added.