Arizona’s unemployment rate dropped four-tenths of a percent last month, as the state added almost 26,000 jobs. 

The state’s unemployment rate in November was 7.8 percent. Last November, it stood at 8 percent. Almost all of the new jobs were in the private sector, with trade, transportation and utilities leading the way among the sectors the state tracks.

Economists with the Arizona Department of Administration said most of those new positions were in retail trade, as stores geared up for the holiday shopping season. Overall, nine sectors added jobs last month. Two were flat, manufacturing and natural resources and mining.

Arizona’s November unemployment rate was seven-tenths of a point higher than the national one, which was 7 percent.