Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate soared to 8.4 percent in October from 7.7 percent in September – its highest level in more than 12 years, according to state figures released Friday.

The data from the state Employment Development showed the ranks of the unemployed swelled to 415,000, causing the unemployment rate to jump more than 3 percentage points from the 5.2 percent recorded in October 2007.

“This is even worse than we expected. It’s a very gloomy picture,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “The sheer increase in the number of unemployed people over the past year is staggering.”

The unemployment rate is considerably below the 10.7 percent peak reached in Feb. 1993.

Statewide, the unemployment rate reached 8.2 percent in October, up from 7.7 percent in September and 5.7 percent a year ago. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 6.5 percent in October.

The closely-watched year-over-year payroll figure showed a decline of 15,500 jobs, or 0.4 percent, to 4,112,600 in Los Angeles County. The drop has been led by a sharp fall in retail employment, which has lost 12,800 jobs over the past year.

“This is the time of year that retail normally starts to hire up for the holiday season,” Kyser said. “Now, the sector has been bleeding jobs all year and the outlook for November and December is no better. It’s pretty broad-based across all retail sectors.”

Manufacturing employment was a close second, losing 9,800 jobs, with the biggest losses concentrated in furniture manufacturing.

The few bright spots in the local economy were largely in the public and health care sectors. Government payrolls at the state and local level continued to swell in October, despite news of mounting budget deficits. While steep cuts have been discussed, few have yet been implemented.

As for health care, “we’re still continuing to see hiring in this sector,” according to Jodi Chavez, senior vice president for the West Coast region of Ajilon, a subsidiary of a Swiss-based staffing firm. “Even in the current downturn, aging baby boomers still need health care.”

Another bright spot was in the motion picture industry, which saw a 7 percent jump in payroll jobs over the past year. However, most of that was because of depressed job levels a year ago as the writers’ strike took hold.