Online job ads rose, US manufacturing picked up speed in January, and the Boston metropolitan area posted the lowest jobless rate among all large, US metropolitan areas.

Online job ads

US online job ads edged up by 49,000 in January to more than 4.85 million, according to The Conference Board’s report on online job ads. This follows a gain of 74,000 online job ads in December.

“In recent months, the trend in the number of online job ads has been flat to slightly rising,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board.

Six of the 10 largest online job categories posted increases in January. Computer and mathematical science ads posted the largest increase, up 23,000 to a total of 530,000, followed by office and administrative support ads, which gained 18,800 ads for a total of 521,900.

Sales and related ads decreased by 7,600 to a total of 465,400 and healthcare practitioners and technical ads fell by 1,400 to a total of 618,700.

US manufacturing

American manufacturers grew in January at the fastest pace in more than two years and many executives said the outlook “looks stronger” at the start of 2017, MarketWatch reports. The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index climbed to 56% last month from a revised 54.5% in December, marking the fifth-straight gain. It’s also the highest level since the end of 2014 and the index easily surpassed the 55.3% forecast of economists surveyed by MarketWatch.

Metropolitan area employment

The Boston-Cambridge-Nashua metropolitan area that includes parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire posted the lowest unemployment rate in December, 2.5%, among US metropolitan areas with populations of 1 million or more, according to the US. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Boston was followed by Denver at 2.6% and Salt Lake City at 2.7%.

The Birmingham area in Alabama and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area that includes parts of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin posted the highest jobless rates in December at 5.4% each.

Among metropolitan areas of all sizes, Ames, Iowa, and Burlington, Vt., posted the lowest unemployment rates of 2.1% each in December. El Centro, Calif., posted the highest at 18.8%.