New federal data suggests Douglas County employers may be shedding jobs at a slower rate than they were in 2008.

According to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Douglas County lost jobs at a 0.3 percent rate during the first quarter of 2009 — the most recent statistics available. That rate was significantly less than the job losses reported in the state’s other large counties.

The news, though, didn’t exactly cause economic development leaders to do cartwheels.

“It is unfortunate that what we can say is that our job market isn’t as bad as some other areas,” said Tom Kern, president and chief executive of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “I would like to be able to make a more optimistic statement than that. But what is positive, is that there clearly are people who are still making investments in the community.”

The chamber in 2009, Kern said, hosted 31 ribbon cuttings for new businesses in Lawrence. Those 31 businesses added approximately 400 jobs to the city. The largest chunk was 160 jobs at the new Sixth Street Wal-Mart store, Kern said, but most were businesses that added 10 jobs or less.

The federal numbers also provided some good news. For 13 consecutive months — since December 2007 — the number of jobs in Douglas County had declined compared to the same month the prior year. In January 2009 that streak ended, as the number of jobs in the county grew by about 280.

February and March, however, produced declines, which caused job totals for the quarter to fall by 0.3 percent. That rate of decline, though, was much slower than the county had been experiencing. In 2008, Douglas County lost jobs at a 2.3 percent rate, and generally was losing jobs at a much faster rate than other large counties in the state.

At least for the beginning of 2009, that trend reversed. Douglas County’s 0.3 percent rate of decline was less than Johnson County’s (down 3.3 percent), Riley (down 1.8 percent), Sedgwick (down 1.7 percent), Shawnee (down 0.8 percent) and Wyandotte (down 1.1 percent).

Roger Zalneraitis, the city’s economic development planner and coordinator, said the numbers may mean that Lawrence entered the recession earlier than other counties and may now be in a less severe stage of the downturn.

But he also cautions against reading too much into the latest numbers.

“One month where the numbers blipped up probably isn’t reason to jump for joy,” Zalneraitis said. “The fact is that we still didn’t add jobs for the quarter.”

Kern said his staff has been working on developing a job strategy report to present to the community in early 2010. The chamber in October conducted a job growth forum aimed at finding out what community members saw as the city’s strengths and weaknesses in the economic development arena.