Santa Clarita’s unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent in December, representing a decline of nearly 2 full points in two years.

The year-ago jobless rate in Santa Clarita was 5.3 percent, and 6.2 percent the year before that.

Across the county, where the year-over-year jobless rate improved to 7.9 percent from 9.2 percent in December 2013, the biggest monthly gainers were retail trade, which added 5,000 workers to payrolls for the holidays; and health care, which grew by 5,100 jobs, coinciding with the continued implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The biggest loser was the construction industry, which contracted by 2,400 workers across L.A. County – which is typical for the season. Within the construction sector, specialty trade contractor jobs fell by 2,000 and heavy and civil engineering were down 700. One bright spot was in the construction of buildings, were 300 workers were added to payrolls.

Professional and business services posted the second-largest month-over-month decline (down 1,800 jobs), with professional, scientific and technical services registering the sharpest losses (1,400).

Other sectors to contract in December were “other services” (down 1,800), information (down 1,700), manufacturing (down 200) and mining and logging (down 100).

Throughout all of 2014, Los Angeles County saw the biggest job growth in health care (up 22,000) and private education (up 4,500).

Professional and business services added 19,300 positions, especially in administrative and waste services (up 11,000).

Leisure and hospitality also gained over the year (up 11,300); trade-transportation-utilities grew by 11,000; information grew by 5,800; construction by 5,000; financial services by 1,500; and mining and logging added 100.

The biggest loser for all of 2014 was manufacturing, which cut 6,700 workers from payrolls (4,500 in nondurable goods, 2,200 in durable goods). The only other loser was government (which includes public education); it fell by 3,800 jobs.