AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- Unemployment in the Netherlands decreased slightly in February by 5,000 in February, Dutch statistics agency CBS said Thursday.

The unemployment rate, however, stayed flat at 6% compared with January, with a total of 469,000 unemployed. In December, the unemployment rate was 5.8%.

Unemployment in the euro zone's fifth largest economy has been in a slightly rising trend in the past four months, CBS said, but the increase has been slower than in the period from July to October 2011.

-By Archibald Preuschat, Dow Jones Newswires; +31 20 5715 218; archibald.preuschat@dowjones.com