CRANSTON – The state’s unemployment rate jumped to 11.1 percent in April – a full half a percentage point above March’s readjusted figure – the R.I. Department of Labor and Training (DLT) said today in its monthly jobs report.

Rhode Island’s jobless rate stands at its highest level since the deep national recession of the mid-1970s, DLT said. (Comparable statistics are not available for years prior to 1976.)

The rate also has now surpassed the peak unemployment rate projected just yesterday by economists at the New England Economic Partnership. They had forecast that the state’s unemployment rate would peak in mid-2010 at 10.9 percent.

The monthly rise in Rhode Island’s unemployment rate also continued to outpace the increase in the national rate, which grew 0.4 percentage points to 8.9 percent in April. Massachusetts officials yesterday reported that the Bay State’s jobless rate had climbed 0.3 percentage points to 8 percent in April.

Rhode Island’s unemployment rate was not the nation’s highest last month, however. Michigan officials said the jobless rate there reached 12.9 percent in April, and in Oregon it hit 12 percent. Not all states had reported their figures at press time.

Along with the rate increase, Rhode Island experienced its 14th consecutive monthly decline in local non-farm payroll employment. The state lost 300 jobs as Ocean State payrolls shrank to 464,700 in April.

DLT spokeswoman Laura Hart noted that the number of jobs lost in April was the smallest in eight months, and far below the average rate over that time period, when about 2,500 jobs were being lost every month. Hart said DLT officials had no immediate explanation for the smaller loss.

Meanwhile, the number of Rhode Islanders on the unemployment rolls – defined as people available for work and searching for a job – rose to 62,600, an increase of 3,000 compared with March and 22,300 compared with a year earlier.

And the state’s resident employment – the number of Rhode Islanders who hold jobs anywhere in the country – fell to 500,800 in April, a drop of 4,100 from the preceding month.

Rhode Island’s largest job losses in April were in manufacturing, which lost 400 jobs for the month. The job count for the accommodation and food services sector fell by 300, while financial activities and retail trade each lost 200 jobs. Arts, entertainment and recreation and educational services lost 100 each.

Although the figures showed that the government added 500 jobs in Rhode Island in April, DLT said the increase was due to the temporary hiring of federal workers to prepare for the 2010 Census.

In addition, “other services” picked up 200 jobs, and the job counts for health care and social assistance, construction, and professional and business services increased by 100 each.

The number of jobs in wholesale trade, transportation and utilities, information, and natural resources and mining remained unchanged.

The number of jobs on Rhode Island payrolls in April dropped by 20,100, or 4.3 percent, compared with the same month last year, DLT said.

Losing the most jobs compared with a year ago were manufacturing (down by 5,100), retail trade (down 3,300), professional and business services (down 3,100), construction (down 2,900), financial activities (down 1,400) and government (down 1,400).

Two sectors experienced year-over-year gains: health care and social assistance, which saw an increase of 200 jobs, and educational services, which added 100 jobs.

Manufacturing-production workers in Rhode Island earned an average hourly wage of $13.81 in April, one cent more than in March but 11 cents fewer than a year ago.

The state’s average manufacturing work week in April was 37.6 hours, down 0.2 hours from March and down 0.6 hours from a year ago, DLT said.