Rhode Island, West Virginia and Ohio showed the biggest increases in unemployment in April as the worst job slump in the post-World War II era rippled through the economy.

The jobless rate rose half a point in Rhode Island to 11.1 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday in Washington. In West Virginia, the rate climbed to 7.5 percent, up 0.7 point from March. And in Ohio, the jobless rate climbed to 10.2 percent.

California dropped for the first time in almost three years, even as the state lost 63,700 jobs, the most of any state.

“We’re still having job losses pretty much everywhere,” said Marisa Di Natale, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pa. “We would expect unemployment in all states to go much higher in coming months. It tends to keep rising even as job losses stop.”

Chrysler LLC’s bankruptcy and cutbacks at other companies, including General Motors Corp., indicate that firings will remain elevated and hiring is unlikely to pick up. Federal Reserve policymakers and economists surveyed by Bloomberg News project the national jobless rate, which climbed to a 25-year high of 8.9 percent in April, will exceed 9 percent though 2010.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia registered increases in the unemployment rate in April from the prior month, while 21 showed a decrease.

The United States has lost 5.7 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007, marking the biggest loss of jobs of any economic slump since the Great Depression.

The 10.2-percent jobless rate in Ohio is the highest level since 1983. Rhode Island’s 11.1-percent, South Carolina’s 11.5-percent and Georgia’s 9.3-percent rates of unemployment all reached the highest levels since records began in 1976.

Michigan still led all states with an unemployment rate of 12.9 percent, followed by Oregon at 12 percent. The jobless rate in California fell to 11 percent, the first drop since September 2006, from a record 11.2 percent.

“The Midwest is hurting,” Ellen Zentner, a senior U.S. macroeconomist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said before the report. “Looking at the unemployment rate from state to state shows you just how much pressure these states are going to be under to supply benefits at a time when coffers are running very thin.”

Payroll employment decreased in 44 states and the District of Columbia last month. After California, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois showed the biggest job losses.

Julia Smith, 51, of Santa Clara, Calif., has sent out more than 500 resumés since November 2008, when she lost her $85,000-a-year job as an office manager, executive assistant and paralegal. She’s had fewer than 10 calls and no job offers.

“I’ve worked really hard — working full-time, taking care of two kids and going to school — to make something of myself and here I am almost homeless,” Smith said. “I have lots of experience and the education, but nobody is even calling. I don’t think it’s going to get better, not for a long time. Not this year.”

The total number of people collecting jobless benefits reached a record 6.66 million in the week ended May 9, the Labor Department reported earlier this week. The jump in jobless rolls shows it’s difficult to find work once employees are dismissed.

Florida was among the states that saw a moderation in the employment slump. The state gained 1,300 jobs, the first increase in two years. Its jobless rate decreased for the first time since March 2006, falling to 9.6 percent from 9.8 percent.