New England’s unemployment rate advanced 0.2 percentage point in March, to 7.8 percent — the highest since December 1992, while nationally, the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 percent to 8.5 percent.

Over the year, New England’s unemployment rate rose 3.0 percentage points; nationally, the unemployment rate was up 3.4 percentage points from a year earlier, according to a report Tuesday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Rhode Island’s 10.5-percent unemployment rate is the highest in New England and the sixth-highest in the country. The Labor Department noted in a report that the unemployment rate in Rhode Island continued to be at its highest since the bureau first began collecting state labor force data in 1976.

Three other New England states also posted jobless rates that were significantly different from the national rate. New Hampshire (6.2 percent), Vermont (7.2 percent) and Connecticut (7.5 percent) recorded lower unemployment rates in March.

In March, New Hampshire was the only New England state to post a significant increase in its unemployment rate over the month, up 0.5 percentage point. The remaining New England states were among 30 and the District of Columbia that registered March unemployment rates that were not appreciably different from those of a month earlier.

Over the year, every New England state recorded a measurable jobless rate increase, led by Rhode Island, up 3.7 percentage points; Massachusetts and Maine recorded rate increases of 3.1 percentage points or more; Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire had smaller (but statistically significant) rate increases from March 2008.

The jobless rate was at its highest in more than 17 years in Maine. In Connecticut and Vermont, the rates were at their highest in more than 16 years and Massachusetts’ jobless rate was at its highest in 16 years.