MONROE - February unemployment rates rose in Green and Lafayette counties for the third month in a row, according to figures released Wednesday by the state Department of Workforce Development.

Green County saw a three-tenths percentage point increase compared with January, to 8.6 percent. Lafayette County had a four-tenths increase to 7.6 percent.

The increases parallel the state unemployment rate increase of three-tenths percentage point, to 8.5 percent, since January.

The department says it's not unusual for an unemployment rate to go up in February as more job seekers resume their job searches. Unemployment figures don't count people who have stopped looking for work.

Green and Lafayette County rates are still below their highest 2010 rate when Green had 10 percent unemployment in March and Lafayette County had 8.4 percent in February.

The highest 2010 state unemployment rate was 10.3 in February.

Figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Nearly every Wisconsin county saw its unemployment rate rise slightly last month.

Kenosha County was the only county whose seasonally adjusted rate remained the same, at 10.1 percent.

Every other county saw increases in February unemployment compared to January's rates.

Door County had the highest rate last month, at 13.9 percent. Dane County's unemployment rate was 5.5 percent, the lowest in the state.