The December report of Virginia’s unemployment rate released yesterday by the Virginia Employment Commission shows Arlington County with the lowest jobless rate in the state at 3.6 percent, followed by Fairfax and Loudoun counties at 4.2 percent, and is 4.6 percent in the Northern Virginia region adjacent the nation’s capital.

Overall, Virginia’s unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, compared to the national average of 8.3 percent, although the rate is dramatically higher in southern regions of the state, including in Martinsville, where it is 16.7 percent. Nationally, unemployment declined in 329 metropolitan areas over the last year, increased in 36 and were flat in seven.