SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 53,000 jobs were added to the payrolls of California in December on the U.S. west coast, plunging the state's unemployment rate to a record 4.3 percent, the lowest level since 1976, the state's employment authorities said Friday.

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) said in a statement that about 18.5 million people were employed statewide last month, with a robust 52,700 nonfarm payroll jobs added to the state's employers.

"California has now gained a total of 2,793,800 jobs since economic expansion began in February 2010," the EDD said.

It said the largest job increase was recorded in the government sector, followed by the leisure and services industry.

Nonfarm payroll jobs in California totaled about 16.98 million in December, according to a survey of businesses that is larger and less variable statistically.

The significant growth of jobs in California represents a drastic drop in the state's unemployment rate from 4.6 percent in November in 2017 and 5.2 percent in the same period of 2016.

In the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California, the unemployment rate was even lower, hitting 2.2 percent in December.

Across the United States, the national unemployment rate stayed at 4.1 percent in December, the lowest level in almost 17 years, indicating that the economy is close to full employment, according to the Labor Department.