The number of job losses in the legal services industry continued to decline in February, according to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday. The legal services sector shed 100 jobs last month, a decrease from the 1,100 jobs that were lost in January. During the past 12 months 37,100 legal service industry jobs were cut.

The news comes on the heels of a report this week that 26 percent of law firms in the U.S. planned to expand in the second quarter of 2010. Overall in the U.S., 36,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were shed in February. The unemployment rate managed to hold steady at 9.7 percent.