Interest rate cut leaves some wary

Economic slowdown taking a toll across sectors

‘‘Certainly, we monitor national developments,” Hollerbach said. ‘‘But when you’re a smaller bank trying to compete, you are always careful.”

On the other side of the credit picture, Beyond Comics, with stores in Gaithersburg and Frederick, is in the process of applying for a loan to put itself in a stronger financial position, said district manager Jon Cohen. He is unsure whether the federal rate cut will help his business secure a lower interest rate on a loan.

‘‘The banks still want to have personal guarantees and credit reports from owners,” said Cohen, who hopes to see a boost at the Gaithersburg store in Lakeforest mall when ‘‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer” cover artist Jo Chen plans to make a rare personal appearance March 29.

The Federal Reserve this week slashed the benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 2.25 percent, the lowest level in three years, as the national economy continued to show trouble spots. Investment banks welcomed the news, and stocks initially surged on the news.

However, the national unemployment rate rose to 4.8 percent in February from 4.5 percent a year ago, while the economy lost 63,000 payroll jobs in February, the U.S. Department of Labor reported recently. The national unemployment rate for February was the highest since 2005, when it was 5.4 percent.

The real unemployment rate is likely even higher, as many adults have become discouraged and stopped looking for work, Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, said in a report.

‘‘Factoring in the decline in the number of adults participating in the labor force, the unemployment rate is closer to 6.8 percent,” Morici said. ‘‘The economy has slipped into a recession of uncertain depth and duration.”

A slow January and February for auto dealers, declining consumer confidence and turbulent financial markets were cited by analysts at automotive information company J.D. Power and Associates in a lowered prediction for U.S. new vehicle sales this year from 15.7 million to 14.95 million. That would be the lowest national sales figure since 1994.

‘‘The current economic environment is fraught with uncertainty and risk, with the financial crisis, worsening oil prices, and weak housing and stock markets steadily impacting other sectors of the economy,” Robert Schnorbus, J.D. Power chief economist, said in a statement.

The Fed can slash interest rates, but the cuts will have limited impact on the economy, as the Fed can do little to keep prices for food, energy, metals and other materials from increasing, Morici said.

State unemployment lower, but foreclosures higher

Maryland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January, the most recent month for which state data are available, actually declined to 3.5 percent from 3.6 percent a year ago.

Maryland has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. South Dakota boasts the lowest at 2.6 percent, while Michigan suffers with the highest at 7.1 percent.

Still, Maryland is reeling from a drastic spike in housing foreclosures, which skyrocketed last year by 455 percent from 2006, much higher than the national rate increase of 75 percent, according to data company RealtyTrac.

To that end, state officials met Thursday with representatives from mortgage companies, servicers and nonprofit counseling agencies to work on setting standards for loss mitigation services for Maryland homeowners.

‘‘The foreclosure crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck enterprise that will only be accomplished with the cooperation of servicers, nonprofit housing counselors, state and local government,” Thomas E. Perez, secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said in a statement.

Maryland’s commercial banks saw earnings decline last year faster than the national average, and total assets actually dropped in the state while assets rose nationally, according to data released this week by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Maryland commercial banks experienced a net income drop of 59 percent last year from 2006, to $223 million — larger than the national decline of 22 percent, according to the FDIC.

The state reported only one notice of major plant closures or layoffs in February, down from three a year ago. That was by Japanese film company Fujifilm Holdings Corp., which closed a film processing plant this month in Williamsport near Hagerstown, affecting 125 employees.

But other Maryland companies have announced recent plans to boost employment. Those include iBiquity Digital Corp. in Columbia, a digital high-definition radio developer, which plans to add 82 jobs in the next two years after receiving a $300,000 conditional loan from the state to assist in its expansion.