The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin metropolitan area in Tennessee posted the lowest unemployment rate among all large, US metropolitan areas at 2.4% in December, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today.

The highest jobless rate among large metropolitan areas in December was posted by the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls area in New York, at 5.5%.

The lowest unemployment rates among metropolitan areas of all sizes was in Ames, Iowa, at 1.5%, followed by Urban Honolulu, Hawaii, at 1.7%. El Centro, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., had the highest unemployment rates at 17.9% and 15.7% respectively.