MANKATO — Among the scads of data released each month by the state employment office, one set of numbers is eagerly awaited by local leaders interested in the region’s economic health.

They’re called Current Employment Statistics and they provide the key detail in how well area businesses are doing by measuring how many jobs they are creating — or losing.

The latest figures offer a little hope after a year marked by lackluster job numbers.

The number of jobs in the greater Mankato-North Mankato region in September was up slightly — 0.9 percent — compared to a year earlier.

Jobs increased by 437, from 50,642 last September to 51,079 this year.

It is the first time this year that the number of jobs was higher than the corresponding month of 2009.

“It’s not like it jumped way up, but it is up. This is typical of our economy,” said Jonathan Zierdt, president and CEO of Greater Mankato Growth, the economic development and Chamber of Commerce organization.

One company that has helped boost job numbers significantly is Verizon Wireless, which has been on a yearlong hiring spree to fill positions in its Mankato call center.

“We’ve hired 170 employees this year already and we have 60 more we’re hiring for the rest of the year,” said Joe Hall, director of customer service.

The call center has 547 employees with a capacity of 725.

“We have a large center and plenty of seats to fill, so we will continue to hire through the first half of next year.”

Hall said Verizon has competitive pay, health insurance and other benefits that start on day one, matching 401(k)s and tuition reimbursement.

Hall said they’ve generally had a good supply of qualified applicants.

“We’ve done a lot of advertising. We’re feeling good about the quality of candidates we’re getting, their skills and their ability to multi-task.”

September’s regional job data, from the Department of Employment & Economic Development, includes all jobs held in Blue Earth and Nicollet counties.

While the number of jobs added in the two counties has been slow, other measures are brighter. The unemployment rate in the two counties is substantially below the state and federal rates. (See related story.)

While the Mankato region has struggled to add more jobs than a year ago, other regional centers such as St. Cloud and Rochester were generally adding more jobs than they had in 2009.

Zierdt and other local leaders say that disparity may be because the Mankato area didn’t lose as many jobs early on in the recession as other regional centers.

“We have always prided ourselves on a marketplace that doesn’t have a huge drop and we don’t have huge spikes,” Zierdt said.

Based on more employment ads in the newspaper and having talked to local business owners, Zierdt believes job growth will continue.

“We know anecdotally that there is hiring going on, and there are jobs still open.”

For September, the percentage increase in jobs locally was stronger than the St. Cloud area but weaker than the Rochester. St. Cloud had 98,052 jobs, up 0.3 percent from last September; Rochester had 104,248, up 1.5 percent from a year ago.