Mar. 7--IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE IF PUEBLO -- among the hardest hit cities in the early 1980s recession -- chooses not to read too much yet into a comparison of its 7.4 percent local jobless rate with the national jobless rate.

The last time the national jobless rate hit 8.1 percent, the jobless rate in Pueblo was 11.4 percent, a disparity that suggests Pueblo's economy is faring better this time.

Of note, however, those rates came in December 1983 when the nation was recovering from the recession of the early 1980s. (The national jobless rate had peaked 13 months earlier at 10.8 percent.)

The last time the national jobless rate was on the increase and hit 8.1 percent -- as is currently the case, and the more appropriate statistical comparison -- was November 1981. Pueblo's jobless rate in November 1981 was 6.4 percent. Pueblo's reversal of fortune after 1981 was sudden. The next year brought massive layoffs at CF&I Steel and within 10 months -- by September 1982 -- the local jobless rate had spiked to 20 percent. The city's jobless rate would stay in the double-digit range for six years.

Today, Pueblo's economy is much more diversified than the early 1980s and local leaders are optimistic the city can weather a recession much better.

Still, they also are expected to keep a close watch on economic indicators such as the jobless rate, recalling how back in the 1980s the early numbers had lulled some into a feeling of too much optimism.

The current year's jobless rates for Pueblo aren't yet available.

The state Department of Labor is scheduled to release February jobless rates for Pueblo and other Colorado cities on March 27. A report on January's jobless rates is due Wednesday.

Pueblo's 7.4 percent jobless rate at the end of 2008 was the highest rate among any of the state's larger cities, according to the state labor department.

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