There were about 2,400 more establishment payroll jobs in the Kansas City metropolitan area in November 2012 than in November 2011.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that the metropolitan area’s employment count grew 0.2 percent over the 12 months.

According to the government’s estimates, 6.1 percent of the area’s labor force was unemployed and looking for work in the most recent November. That compared with 6.2 percent a year earlier.

The Kansas City area was one of 322 metropolitan areas — out of 372 included in the bureau’s surveys — that had lower jobless rates in November 2012 than in November 2011. It also was one of 288 areas with over-the-year increases in nonfarm payroll employment.

In the most recent survey, unemployment rates around the country ranged from 2.6 percent in Bismarck, N.D., where oil industry development is booming, up to 27.5 percent in Yuma, Ariz., and 26.6 percent in El Centro, Calif. Nationally, nonfarm employment rose 1.4 percent.

Most metropolitan areas in the north-central states had lower jobless rates than the national average.

The raw data for the Kansas City area said there were 995,800 workers on payrolls in November 2012, and there were 63,200 unemployed members of the labor force.

The Missouri side of the Kansas City area accounted for 56 percent of the area’s workforce. It added 1,000 jobs since November 2011. The Kansas side, with 44 percent of the area’s workforce, gained 1,400 jobs over the year.