SAN DIEGO -- The unemployment rate in San Diego County rose to 6.8 percent last month, the highest level since 1995, the California Employment Development Department reported Friday.

October's unemployment rate in San Diego County was up from a revised 6.5 percent in September, and above the year-ago estimate of 4.8 percent, according to the EDD.

The unadjusted statewide unemployment rate in October was 8 percent. The national rate was 6.1 percent, according to the EDD.

The last time the unemployment rate was this high in San Diego County was in July of 1995, when it hit 7 percent, the EDD's Barbara Ruehl said. The highest unemployment rate ever recorded locally was 8.6 percent in July 1993.

The State of California's unemployment rate also keeps rising.

The state jobless rate jumped to 8.2 percent in October -- the highest rate in 14 years.

That's up from 7.7 percent in September, and 5.7 percent from a year ago.

The largest hit came in the construction industry, followed by manufacturing.

But the bad news doesn't end there: The unemployment numbers come in just as a state fund that pays unemployment benefits is about to run out of money.

State officials are preparing to ask the federal government to step in with a loan on Dec. 1 so they can continue paying jobless benefits to California's now more than 1.5 million unemployed.

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed raising the payments from employers into the fund, as well as reducing benefit levels and raising income eligibility requirements.