Puerto Rico employment was up 1.2% in February from January.
Compared with February 2016, employment was down 0.2%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Household Survey. The February employment level was 2.4% higher than the lowest point in the last 10 years, reached in September 2014.
The February unemployment rate of 12% was 0.2 percentage points lower than the rate in January. The February rate increased 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier, though it was 3 percentage points lower than the 10 year peak of 15% in November and December 2013.
The bureau also releases an employment report based on a survey of places people work. This showed that total nonfarm employment declined 0.03% in February from January and 1.2% from February 2016. This survey showed that private sector employment was down 0.8% compared with February 2016 and 0.1% from January.
Puerto Rico's Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority said that in the latest available month for the commonwealth's economic activity index, December, economic activity was down 2.9%.
All the data in this story have been seasonally adjusted.
