Officials say New York’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.2 percent in December from 8.3 percent a month earlier.

The state labor department says about 34,000 private sector jobs were added during the month. That brings the 2012 total private sector gain to more than 123,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate stood at 7.8 percent upstate compared with 7.9 percent in November. It was at 8.8 percent in the New York City metro area, the same as in November.

The December unemployment rate in 2011 was 8.2 in the state. It was 9.1 percent in New York City and 7.5 percent upstate.

Nationally, the unemployment rate in December of 2012 was 7.8 percent.

The numbers were released Thursday.

(AP)