ATLANTA (AP) — State labor officials say metro Atlanta's unemployment rate stands at 6.4 percent.

The Georgia Department of Labor early Thursday announced the new rate for December, which is unchanged from the previous month. It's down from 6.8 percent from December 2013.

Officials say metro Atlanta gained 2.51 million jobs in December, a slight increase over the previous month.

That's a reversal of the trend in recent years. In the previous three years, the metro area had lost an average of 900 jobs from November to December.

Elsewhere, metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 4.9 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 8.8 percent.

The local area jobless rates are not seasonally adjusted.