L.A.'s mixed employment bag

January's 4.6 percent jobless rate is up from 4.5 percent a month earlier, but it's still very low - lower than the state's 4.8 percent (the U.S. rate was 4.6 percent). L.A. County unemployment has stayed in the low to middle four percent range since last spring, defying conventional wisdom that in an urban region as large and poverty prone as Los Angeles, there is expected to be a higher-than-average rate of joblessness. But there was glum news in a separate payroll survey that showed L.A. County employment fell by 71,200 from December. All major categories were down - among them some areas you would expect to see drop after the holidays, like retail and food services. But the list also included manufacturing (3,500), construction (3,000), and educational and health services (8,300). It's unlikely that these numbers are indicative of a plummeting economy - there's little sign of trouble in other sectors - though February's report might be worth examining a little more closely. By the way, January's state and county numbers are coming out this late because the federal government went through its annual benchmark revision process and that apparently gums up the works.