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The Salt Lake City metro area is tied with Boston for the lowest unemployment rate among the nation's 51 metro areas with at least 1 million residents.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that the Salt Lake area's unemployment rate was 2.4 percent in November — down from 2.8 percent a year earlier. Boston's rate also was a low 2.4 percent.
In contrast, the highest unemployment rate among large metro areas was 5.5 percent in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.
Despite Salt Lake City's top ranking among large metro areas, unemployment was even lower in some of Utah's smaller metro areas last month.
The unemployment rate was just 2.2 percent in both the Provo-Orem and Logan metro areas (both down from 2.6 percent a year earlier).
Also, the unemployment rate was 2.6 percent in the Ogden-Clearfield metro area (down from 3 percent a year earlier), and 2.7 percent in the St. George metro area (down from 3.4 percent a year earlier).
Statewide, the agency said Utah's unemployment rate was 2.6 percent in November, down from 3 percent a year earlier.
The agency reported that Utah added an estimated 42,100 jobs in the year since November of 2015, a 3 percent increase.
It estimated that 24,400 of them came in the Salt Lake metro area; 8,500 in Ogden-Clearfield; 8,100 in Provo-Orem ; 2,700 in St. George; and 1,800 in Logan.