No relief: 42 states lost jobs in Aug.

WASHINGTON - Forty-two states lost jobs last month, up from 29 in July, with the biggest net payroll cuts coming in Texas, Michigan, Georgia, and Ohio.

The Labor Department also reported yesterday that 27 states saw their unemployment rates increase in August, and 14 states and Washington, D.C., reported unemployment rates of 10 percent or above.

The jobless rates in California, Nevada, and Rhode Island were the highest on records dating to 1976.

Earlier in the week, Pennsylvania reported that August unemployment rose by 3,000, or one-tenth of a pecentage point, to 8.7 percent. New Jersey reported Wednesday an overall increase of 800 jobs, but a jump of four-tenths in the unemployment rate, to 9.7 percent - a 33-year high.

Yesterday's federal report shows jobs remain scarce even as most analysts believe the economy is pulling out of the worst recession since the 1930s. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said earlier this week that the recovery was not likely to be rapid enough to reduce unemployment for some time.

The jobless rate nationwide is expected to peak above 10 percent next year, from its current 9.7 percent.

The United States lost 216,000 jobs in August, the department said earlier this month, down from 276,000 in July. Employers have eliminated 6.9 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007.

Texas lost 62,200 jobs as its unemployment rate rose to 8 percent in August for the first time in 22 years. The state's leisure, construction, and manufacturing industries were hardest hit, losing 35,500 jobs.

Michigan saw 42,900 jobs disappear, including 25,000 in manufacturing, as the state continued to suffer along with its struggling auto industry.

Michigan's unemployment rate rose to 15.2 percent, the highest in the nation. When its jobless rate topped 15 percent in June, it was the first time any state surpassed that mark since 1984.

Nevada has the second-highest rate at 13.2 percent, followed by Rhode Island at 12.8 percent and California and Oregon at 12.2 percent each.

California and Nevada have been slammed by the housing bust, while Rhode Island has lost thousands of manufacturing and government jobs in the last year.

Still, California's net loss of 12,000 jobs was down from 35,000 the previous month. From November 2008 through June, the state lost at least 65,000 jobs each month, said Jerry Nickelsburg, a senior economist with the Anderson Forecast at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Georgia and Ohio reported the third- and fourth-highest job losses, respectively, but their unemployment rates both fell as many of the unemployed dropped out of the workforce.

The four states with the largest drops in their unemployment rates - Indiana, Colorado, Kansas, and Virginia - experienced similar trends: Thousands of jobless workers gave up on their searches and left the workforce. None of those states actually added any jobs, according to a survey of employers.

Eight states added jobs in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to employer surveys used by the Labor Department. North Carolina added the most, with a gain of 7,000, followed by Montana with 5,100 and West Virginia with 2,800.