Topeka ? A new report shows the Kansas unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent in January, with modest job growth over the previous year.

The state Department of Labor said Tuesday the January jobless rate declined from 6.4 percent in December and 6.8 percent in January 2011, with the figures adjusted for seasonal factors.

Department officials said one sign the state’s economy is improving was January’s increase in jobs from the same month a year earlier. The number rose by 12,200, or almost 1 percent.

The agency noted that while government jobs declined, private employers added about 22,000 jobs over the year, an increase of about 2 percent.

Labor Secretary Karin Brownlee says the job growth in the private sector is encouraging.