Missouri officials say the state lost about 7,300 non-farm payroll jobs in May, even as the state's unemployment rate was unchanged from April at 7.3 percent.
The Department of Economic Development reported the figures Tuesday.
The decline in non-farm payroll jobs followed several months of increases. The 7.3 percent jobless rate is the lowest for Missouri since December 2008, and compares with the national figure of 8.2 percent in May.
Last week, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Missouri's estimated real gross domestic product grew less than 0.04 percent in 2011 from the previous year. Real gross domestic product is an inflation-adjusted measurement of the value of goods and services produced.
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