The unemployment rate in the Utica-Rome area was at 6.8%  in December, a big drop from December of 2012..

That's according to numbers released by the New York State Department of Labor.

The Utica-Rome jobless rate was at 8.9%  in December of 2012.

The state's unemployment rate was 7.1% last month.

Meanwhile, New York state's private sector job count increased by 109,900 from December of 2012 to December of 2013.

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