Sydney's eastern suburbs had an average unemployment rate of just 2.9 per cent in the year to October, the nation's lowest. The northern beaches had the second-best rate of 3 per cent, analysis of regional unemployment rates by CommSec shows.

The regions of Sutherland, North Sydney and Hornsby and the outer-west and Blue Mountains all had an average jobless rate below 4 per cent in the year to October.

"NSW leads the nation's economies at present," said Commsec's chief economist, Craig James. "So it makes sense that it dominates the list of regions with the lowest unemployment rates in the nation."

The state-wide unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent last month – the lowest among the states and well below the national figure of 5.6 per cent. NSW also recorded the lowest youth unemployment rate of the states in October. NSW has now had the lowest unemployment rate of any state for 17 consecutive months. Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian says more than half of all new jobs in Australia since March last year have been added in NSW.

The strong employment data reflects official state economic growth figures released this month which showed the NSW economy last financial year registering its fastest rate of expansion since the Sydney Olympics. The robust growth of 3.5 per cent in 2014-15 was underpinned by the state's strong construction and financial services industries.

But CommSec's analysis revealed that conditions in local jobs markets vary widely across the state.

In the New England and north-west region of NSW the jobless rate was 8 per cent in the year to October, the highest in the state. The Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven region was the next highest on 7.2 per cent.

Some parts of Sydney also had above-average unemployment, notably the city's south-west region with a jobless rate of 6.8 per cent in the year to October. Unemployment was also relatively high in the Ryde area (6.3 per cent) and Blacktown (6.2 per cent).

Nationally, five of the 10 regions with the highest rates were in Queensland. Jobs markets are especially weak in parts of regional Queensland apparently hit hard by the downturn in the mining sector. Three parts of the state had an average unemployment rate over 9 per cent in the year to October – Queensland Outback (12.1 per cent and highest in Australia), Townsville (11.6 per cent) and Wide Bay (9.4 per cent).

These rates were in contrast to inner-city Brisbane, where the figure was just 3.4 per cent.

Mr James said the detailed labour force figures from the Bureau of Statistics also showed the number of older people in the national workforce was near record highs. The proportion of those aged over 65 years in the workforce stood at 12.6 per cent last month, compared with only 6 per cent in 2002.

"It is by no means clear that the participation rate [of older people] has peaked," he said.