CRANSTON – The state’s unemployment rate continued its climb into historic territory in June, ticking up 0.3 percentage points last month to 12.4 percent, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training (DLT) said today in its monthly jobs report.

The local rate continued to outpace the national average, which rose 0.1 percentage points in June to reach 9.5 percent, the highest level since August 1983. Joblessness in Massachusetts increased to 8.6 percent in June, up 0.4 percentage points from May.

In Rhode Island, DLT officials said the state’s unemployment rate is the highest since before 1976, when the formula use to calculate unemployment was changed. A year ago, the rate stood at 7.7 percent.

Along with the latest rate increase, Rhode Island posted its 16th consecutive monthly decline in local non-farm payroll employment. The state lost 900 jobs in June as Ocean State payrolls shrank to 462,900.

On the national level, the jobless rate soared in Michigan – long the state with the highest unemployment rate – by 1.1 percentage points in June to 15.2 percent. Oregon’s rate, which ran ahead of Rhode Island’s in May, remained unchanged last month at 12.2 percent. Not all states had reported their figures at press time.

Meanwhile, the number of Rhode Islanders on the unemployment rolls – defined as people available for work and searching for a job – rose to 70,700, an increase of 2,300 compared with May and an increase of 27,200 compared with a year earlier.

The official state unemployment figure of 12.4 percent only counts those Rhode Islanders who have actively looked for work during the previous four weeks. Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that the Rhode Island jobless rate would have been 21.5 percent this spring if residents with a part-time job who would prefer full-time work and those who have given up on searching for employment also were included in the count.

The numbers weren’t all bleak. The state’s resident employment – the number of Rhode Islanders who hold jobs anywhere in the country – increased by 1,400 to 499,000 in June, the first month-over-month increase in four months.

Rhode Island’s largest job decline in June was in accommodation and food services, which lost 600 jobs for the month. The DLT said the cause was poor weather, along with the down economy, leading to less seasonal hiring. The job count for government also fell by 600 because of cutbacks at the local level, the DLT said.

Manufacturing lost 300 jobs and construction lost 200, according to the DLT. Both the wholesale trade and the transportation and utilities sectors lost 100 jobs each.

Retail trade picked up 300 jobs, and “other services” and educational services added 200 each. Professional and business services; financial activities; and arts, entertainment and recreation added 100 jobs each.

The number of jobs in health care and social assistance; information; natural resources and mining remained unchanged for the month.

The number of jobs on Rhode Island payrolls in June dropped by 19,800, or 4.1 percent, compared with the same month last year, DLT said.

Losing the most jobs compared with a year ago were manufacturing (down by 5,200), retail trade (down 2,900), professional and business services (down 2,800), construction (down 2,600), government (down 2,100) and financial activities (down 1,000).

One sector experienced year-over-year gains: educational services, which saw an increase of 200 jobs. Natural resources and mining remained unchanged.

Manufacturing-production workers in Rhode Island earned an average hourly wage of $14.15 in June, 18 cents more than in May and 28 cents more than a year ago.

The state’s average manufacturing work week in June was 37.7 hours, up 0.6 hours from May but down 1.2 hours from a year ago, DLT said.

Additional information about the Rhode Island labor market is available from the R.I. Department of Labor and Training at RI.gov. To learn more about the services, programs and grants offered by the department’s Employer Service Unit – or to meet with an employer-service representative – call 1-888-616-JOBS or visit RI.gov.