State officials say California's unemployment rate jumped to 8.2 percent in October from 7.7 percent in September.
The jobless rate announced today by the California Employment Development Department was up from 5.7 percent just a year earlier.
The agency said the number of people unemployed in California topped 1.5 million - up by 95,000 over the month, and up by 487,000 compared with October last year.
In San Diego County, the unemployment rate rose to 6.8 percent last month, the highest level since 1995.
The department says the last time the unemployment rate was this high in San Diego County was July 1995, when it hit 7 percent.
The highest unemployment rate ever recorded in the county was 8.6 percent in July 1993.
The national rate was 6.1 percent in October.