RICHMOND, Va. — The Richmond area’s unemployment rate for December 2018 stands at 2.7 percent; the area’s lowest rate in more than 10 years.

The December jobless rate remained unchanged from November 2018, according to data from the Virginia Labor Market, and decreased by .7 points from the previous year.

With a labor force of 583,808 people, 15,490 were unemployed in the area as of December. Between December 2017 and 2018, an additional 4,187 members of the Richmond area work force gained employment.

According to the December data the Richmond metro-area had the seventh lowest employment rate in December when compared to the country’s 51 largest metro areas, on par with Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City and .1 percent lower than the Arlington, Washington D.C., and Alexandria metro area.

Across Virginia, the December 2018 unemployment rate stood at 2.8 percent; its lowest in nearly 17 years.