WASHINGTON – Rhode Island had the nation’s third-highest unemployment rate in January, while Michigan remained No. 1 as its jobless rate rose to 11.6 percent from December’s revised 10.2 percent, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Next after Michigan were South Carolina, with a state rate of 10.4 percent; Rhode Island, where the 10.3 percent rate, up from 9.4 percent the month before (READ MORE), was the highest since the government changed the way unemployment rates are calculated in 1976; and California, with a rate of 10.1 percent, the BLS said.

Another four states plus the District of Columbia had jobless rates of 9.0 percent or higher, while 13 states and the District of Columbia had rates significantly higher than the nation’s January rate of 7.6 percent, the bureau added. (In February, the national jobless rate rose to 8.1 percent, the BLS said last week. READ MORE)

Massachusetts was No. 22 nationwide with a state unemployment rate of 7.4 percent, while Connecticut was No. 24, with a rate of 7.3 percent.

Wyoming had the lowest rate, 3.7 percent. But no state recorded a significant decline in unemployment in January, the BLS said. Three states showed no significant change, while the other 47 and the District of Columbia all recorded statistically significant increases in their local jobless rates.

Significant increases in joblessness also were seen in all four major geographic regions in the first month of the year, whether compared with December or with January 2008, the BLS said. The highest rate and largest increases were in the West, where unemployment rose to 8.7 percent, a 1.3 percentage-point increase compared with December and a 3.5 percentage-point increase from a year ago. Next were the Midwest at 8.1 percent and the South at 7.6 percent.

The Northeast recorded the lowest jobless rate of 7.1 percent, although unemployment in its New England division rose to 7.3 percent from December’s 6.4 percent and the year-ago 4.7 percent.

Additional information, including the 21-page Regional and State Employment and Unemployment report, is available from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov.