The economic downturn continued to exact a big toll on Hawai'i workers in January, with unemployment more than doubling from a year earlier.

The jobless rate zoomed to 6.1 percent in January, or the highest level in more than a quarter century. A year earlier the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.0 percent.

Hawai'i's rate was well below the 7.6 percent national rate in January. That was up 2.7 percent from a year earlier as the nation lumbered through a recession that's cut tourism to Hawai'i as well as slowed the state's construction industry.

Among states, Michigan again had the highest rate at 11.6 percent, with Wyoming the lowest at 3.7 percent.

California, a significant market to Hawai'i's visitor industry, was one of four states with double-digit percentage joblessness. Its unemployment rate weighed in at 10.1 percent.

Figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also show:

--The number of people without work in Hawai'i surged to 39,600 in January. A year earlier the number was less than half that at 19,700.

--There was a 1.0 percentage point increase in unemployment in January from December's 5.1 percent jobless rate.

--In January 2008 the seasonally adjusted rate stood at 3.0 percent in Hawai'i.

--The last time Hawai'i's jobless rate was as high was April 1983.