WASHINGTON – Although the jobless rate in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut continued to rise in February, all three states saw their unemployment picture improve compared with that in other states, according to data released today by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Rhode Island posted the nation’s fifth-highest unemployment rate – down from No. 3 in January (READ MORE); No. 2 in November and December; and No. 1 in September and October – as its jobless rate rose 0.2 percentage points to a seasonally adjusted 10.5 percent, after rising 0.9 percentage points the month before.

Massachusetts had the 24th highest rate, down from 22nd in January, although its unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points to 7.8 percent. (READ MORE) And Connecticut improved five spots, to 29th highest last month from 24th highest the month before, as its unemployment rate edged up only 0.1 percentage points to 7.4 percent.

Michigan remained No. 1, with a jobless rate that rose 0.4 percentage points to 12 percent, after surging 1.4 percentage points in January. Next were South Carolina, at 11.0 percent; Oregon, 10.8 percent; North Carolina, 10.7 percent; Rhode Island and California, tied at 10.5 percent; Nevada, 10.1 percent; the District of Columbia, 9.9 percent; and in a three-way tie for 10th place, Ohio, Indiana and Florida, all at 9.4 percent.

“Regional and state unemployment rates were nearly all higher in February,” the BLS noted. Year-over-year increases were seen in every state and region, while month-over-month increases were recorded for 49 states and the District of Columbia. The sole exception was Nebraska, where the jobless rate dipped 0.1 percentage points to 4.2 percent; next-best was Connecticut, with its 0.1 percentage point increase.

Jobless rates were lowest last month in Wyoming, 3.9 percent; Nebraska, 4.2 percent; North Dakota, 4.3 percent; South Dakota, 4.6 percent; Iowa, 4.9 percent; Utah, 5.1 percent; New Hampshire, 5.3 percent; New Mexico, 5.4 percent; Oklahoma, 5.5 percent; and Louisiana, 5.7 percent.

Among the four major geographic regions, unemployment was lowest in the Northeast and South, at 8.4 percent. Jobless rates were significantly higher in the Midwest, at 9.4 percent, and the West, at 9.6 percent.

New England saw its unemployment rate rise to 8.3 percent – third best among the nine BLS divisions – from January’s 7.1 percent. Jobless rates in other divisions ranged from the West South Central’s 6.5 percent to the Pacific’s 10.6 percent.

Additional information from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics – including the 20-page Regional and State Employment and Unemployment: February 2009 – is available at www.bls.gov.