Honolulu's unemployment rate jumped to 4.2 percent in September as the ranks of the jobless swelled by more than 7,000 compared to a year earlier.

Figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show non-seasonally adjusted unemployment was up 1.5 percentage points compared to September 2007, when the joblessness rate was 2.7 percent.

The bureau's preliminary figures show there were 19,300 unemployed people out of 458,100 people in Honolulu's workforce. A year earlier there were 12,000 people unemployed.

Unemployment in the state has been rising this year as Hawai'i's economy contracts. Previously the state reported that seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit a near seven-year high of 4.5 percent in September.