The San Diego region’s unemployment rate came in lower than expected in November, falling to 4.6% from 5.3% in October, and more than two points lower than the predicted rate of 6.8% set last year.

The new figures were released this week by the California Economic Development Department (EDD) which showed that the overall unemployment rate for the state fell from 7.3% to 6.9%, the lowest rate since the COVID pandemic began in March 2020.

Employment in San Diego County increased by 15,000 non-farm-related jobs, but farming jobs fell by 200 jobs.

The largest job growth occurred among educational and health services, seeing 3,700 new jobs, with health care and social assistance jobs totaling 76% of those jobs -most likely due to the COVID pandemic.

Employment also grew in government with 1,700 new jobs; 1,700 new leisure and hospitality jobs; 1,300 additional professional and business services jobs; and 1,200 jobs in other services.

But two sectors saw losses in employment; 1,100 financial activities jobs were lost, along with 500 manufacturing and 300 construction jobs.

The only sectors which did not register any significant changes were mining and logging jobs, as well as the information sector which includes publishing, motion picture and sound recording, broadcasting, and telecommunications jobs like data processing, hosting, and related services.

Statewide, new job growth include about 1,889,000 new hires, which totals nearly 70% of the 2,714,800 jobs lost at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

California Governor Gavin Newsom welcomed the positive jobs numbers and committed to continue to build the state’s economy.

“Since February, California has created nearly 1 million jobs, an unprecedented achievement for the state’s economic recovery,” Newsom said Friday. “While the state continues to see a robust recovery, creating nearly 22 percent of the nation’s jobs in November and the largest unemployment rate decrease since February, there’s still more work to be done getting folks back to work and supporting those hardest-hit by the pandemic,” Newsom aded.