The Sacramento Region Unemployment

New labor statistics show the Sacramento area jobless rate in December was 7.6 percent, down from 9.7 percent a year earlier.

"That 2.1 percent, that's the biggest year-over drop we've seen 1990," says George Marley with the state Employment Development Department.

December's 7.6 percent unemployment rate was down from 8.0 percent the previous month.

Marley points out that the construction sector added 700 jobs from November to December, which is unusual. Construction typically loses an average of 1,700 jobs in December.

"A lot of people are sprucing up their houses, fixing things up. Obviously the weather helps when it's gorgeous out there," he says. "I mean we definitely could use the rain -- that's another thing that could effect our farming later on down the line."

Other industries that saw job gains in December were leisure and hospitality and professional and business services.

The 13,600 job gain in December pales when compared to a strong November, in which the state added more than 50,000 new jobs. For the year, California gained some 235,000 jobs for a growth rate of 1.6 percent. Anything under 2 percent is considered too small to make a significant dent in the unemployment rate.

That rate in December did drop two tenths of a point to 8.3 percent. But that’s partially because unemployed workers left the labor force.

The big question now is how close these preliminary numbers will be to the final numbers. Each January, the state goes through all the job stats from the last year and verifies their accuracy. That resulted in a significant increase in 2012’s job gains; economists hope the same will happen for 2013.