Massachusetts ended 2016 with the lowest unemployment rate in 16 years.
The state’s jobless rate dropped to 2.8 percent in December, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported on Thursday. The last time the unemployment rate dipped that low was in December 2000.
The state’s jobless rate was 2.9 percent in November. The state continues to have among the lowest unemployment rates in the United States. The national unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in December.
“For the past six months, the unemployment has continued to drop, and the labor force participation rate has held steady over the year, which is very good news for the state,” said Ronald L. Walker II, the Massachusetts secretary of labor and workforce development.
Construction, professional, and scientific services; education and health care; and leisure and hospitality were the strongest employers last year. Together those sectors added 63,300 of the 75,000 new jobs in Massachusetts last year.
The number of Massachusetts residents actively participating in the labor force was 64.7 percent, increasing only by 0.2 of a percentage point over December 2015. And over 100,000 Massachusetts workers still remain unemployed.
Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @fernandesglobe.