The state unemployment rate is expected to continue dropping over the next two years, and California will outpace the nation in job growth, according to a UCLA Anderson Forecast released Wednesday, CBS Los Angeles reports.

Jerry Nickelsburg, a UCLA Forecast senior economist, said statewide growth in non-farm jobs has beaten the rest of the country by 1 percentage point over the past three months.

He predicts the state’s unemployment rate could hit 4.9 percent by the end of 2017, down from 5.8 percent now.