SAN DIEGO — San Diego County added 6,400 jobs in February with minimal impact from federal job cuts.

The region’s unemployment rate was 4.4%, down from 4.5% in January, state labor officials said Friday. San Diego County’s jobless rate was lower than than the U.S. average of 4.5% and 5.5% in California.

Job gains were led by private education and health services, adding 3,400 positions from January to February. Work in the sector includes nursing, social assistance, jobs in private colleges and universities, as well as ambulatory services.

February’s numbers do not yet reflect large job cuts in the federal government. President Donald Trump, who used an executive order to create the Department of Government Efficiency, oversaw some 100,000 federal workers leaving jobs in February and March.

There are around 46,400 federal workers in San Diego County, down by 100 jobs from January to February, and 400 in a year.

Kelly Cunningham, of the San Diego Institute for Economic Research, said it’s important to remember the majority of federal workers in San Diego County are employed in the Department of Defense, which Trump has signaled may see an increase in funding because of border security and other national security plans.

San Diego County saw no cuts in February to Department of Defense workers, which includes the Navy. There were 22,600 Department of Defense workers in February, and 23,800 federal workers in other departments.

“I would expect some increase on defense as the Trump administration has talked about ramping that up,” Cunningham said.

San Diego economist Ray Major added that many federal workers took buyout offers that kept them getting paid as far as September. Those workers would not show up on unemployment rolls because they are still getting paid, even though they aren’t working.

Outside of federal changes, San Diego employers seemed to be ramping up in February. In addition to private education and health services, the other big gainer was leisure and hospitality, adding 2,500 jobs. Jobs in the sector are in bars, restaurants, casinos and hotels.

Other job gains were in professional and business services with 1,100; general services (laundry, maintenance, religious), adding 600 jobs; and construction, with 500. Job losses were in trade, transportation and utilities (retail), down by 1,300; government (mainly state-run education), down by 300; information (telecommunications, newspapers, publishing industry), down by 200; and financial activities (real estate, insurance, investments), down by 100.

When adjusted for seasonal swings, the San Diego County unemployment rate was closer to 4.3%, said Daniel Enemark, chief economist at the San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center. That compares to the 4.1% U.S. average and 5.4% in California.

Enemark said March’s data will likely start reflecting changes to the economy since Trump took office beyond just federal job cuts. He cited a recent report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas that said U.S.-based employers announced 172,017 job cuts in February, the highest for that month since 2009.

The most job openings in San Diego County in February were for nurses, according to state data that aggregates job postings during the month. It was followed by retail salespeople, home health and personal care aides, customer service representatives and software developers.

Organizations with the most job ads were UC San Diego, Apple, Scripps Health, Starbucks, General Atomics and Qualcomm.

On an annual basis in San Diego County, private education and health services added the most jobs at 9,300. It was followed by government (mainly state education) with 9,000, and leisure and hospitality with 4,100.

Most other sectors are down year-over-year. Professional and business services (legal, scientific, waste management, architectural) were down by 5,100 — the most of any sector. It was followed by manufacturing, down by 3,300; financial activities, down by 1,600; information, down by 1,000; trade, transportation and utilities, down by 700; and construction, down by 400.

State officials do not seasonally adjust jobless rates for individual counties. Compared with other parts of California, San Diego County was in the middle of the pack with its unadjusted rate of 4.4%.

The rate was 5.9% in Los Angeles County, 3.9% in Orange County, 3.9% in San Francisco County, 4.1% in Santa Clara County, 7.3% in Santa Cruz County and 5.2% in Riverside County.

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