The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania continued to creep up in October, gaining one-tenth of 1 percentage point compared with September, to reach 5.8 percent.

The state's unemployment rate is still below the national average of 6.5 percent.

The state Department of Labor and Industry reported there are now 372,000 unemployed Pennsylvanians, joining the more than 10 million unemployed Americans.

Last October the unemployment rate in Pennsylvania was 4.4 percent.

The sector that has taken the biggest hit in jobs over the last year was manufacturing, which according to the state report lost 22,400 jobs, or 3.4 percent of the available employment, dropping to a manufacturing work force of 631,000 people.

Overall employment in goods-producing industries fell by 3.1 percent, or 7,000 jobs, since October 2007.

The employment sector that includes retail and wholesale trades, transportation and utility workers saw a reduction of 15,300 jobs over the year, or job losses of 1.4 percent over October 2007.

There are now 1.1 million workers in stores, transportation and utilities.

Employment in education and health services continued to grow. In October there were 1.1 million health-care and education jobs, 21,300 jobs more than last year, or a 2 percent gain in employment.