WASHINGTON – Rhode Island and Michigan, with seasonally adjusted jobless rates of 9.3 percent, had the nation’s highest unemployment last month, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Overall, nine states and the District of Columbia registered significantly higher jobless rates than the U.S. figure of 6.5 percent,” the BLS said, “26 states reported measurably lower rates and 15 states had rates little different from that of the nation.”

Besides Rhode Island and Michigan, the bureau added, unemployment rates of 7 percent or higher were reported in 12 other states and Washington, D.C.: California, 8.2 percent; South Carolina, 8.0 percent; Nevada, 7.6 percent; Alaska and the District of Columbia, 7.4 percent; Illinois, Ohio and Oregon, 7.3 percent each; Mississippi, 7.2 percent; and Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, 7.0 percent each, the BLS said.

The national jobless rate has risen 0.4 percentage points since September and 1.7 points since a year ago. (READ MORE) The largest month-over-month increase was in Oregon, where unemployment rose 0.9 percentage points.

Rhode Island’s 0.5-percentage point month-over-month rise was fueled by government layoffs, the state Department of Labor and Training reported today. (READ MORE)

“Over the year, jobless rates were up in 47 states and the District of Columbia, down in one state and unchanged in two states,” the bureau said. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia had increases that were considered statistically significant, led by Rhode Island (+4.2 percentage points), Florida (+2.7 points); Idaho (+2.6 points); and California, Georgia and Nevada (+2.5 points each).

Among regions last month, unemployment rates were highest in the West (7.1 percent) and Midwest (6.7 percent), followed by the South (6.1 percent) and the Northeast (5.8 percent, up from 4.5 percent a year ago). Within the Northeast, the jobless rate was higher in New England – 5.9 percent, up from 5.8 percent the month before and 4.4 percent a year ago – than in the mid-Atlantic states (5.8 percent).

Additional information, including today’s 20-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.