Patrick County’s unemployment rate dropped .2 percent in February, according to the most recent data available from the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC).

The county’s  4.5 percent unemployment rate in February is slightly down from the 4.7 percent rate reported by the VEC in January, and includes 359 people looking for work, and 7,659 employed of the 8,018 work force, according to the recently released data.

The labor force includes the number of people employed, plus the number of job seekers.

In February  2016, Patrick County’s unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent, according to data from the VEC.

Unemployment rates in the adjacent localities of Henry County and Martinsville also showed a slight decline, data showed.

In Henry County, February’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent, with 21,004 working and 1,227 jobless of a labor force that totaled  22,231, data showed. Henry County’s unemployment rate in January was 5.8 percent, and 6.1 percent in February, 2016, according to data.

The unemployment rate in Martinsville fell from 7.7 percent in January to 7.4 percent in February, according to the VEC. Of the city’s 5,175 workforce, 4,971 people are working, with 384 seeking a job, data showed. Martinsville’s unemployment rate in February 2016 was 7.7 percent, according to the department.