HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's unemployment rate skyrocketed in April, at the height of the state's pandemic-driven shutdown, to its highest rate in over four decades of record-keeping, the state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday.

Meanwhile, payrolls fell by more than 1 million to the lowest level in at least three decades.

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate more than doubled to 15.1 percent in April, up from 5.8 percent in March, the department said. Initially the department had said Pennsylvania's unemployment rate was 6 percent in March, but that preliminary figure was adjusted downward to 5.8 percent.

The national rate was 14.7 percent in April.

Pennsylvania's highest unemployment rate was 12.7 percent in 1983, according to online federal data that keeps track back to 1976. It is a dramatic change from last year when Pennsylvania's unemployment rate hit a nearly two-decade low of 4.1 percent.

A separate survey of employers showed seasonally adjusted nonfarm payrolls fell by more than 1 million in April to just above 5 million. That's the lowest recorded payroll figure for Pennsylvania in online federal data that keeps track back to the start of 1990.

Meanwhile, 1.9 million Pennsylvanians have sought unemployment benefits since mid-March, almost one-third of the labor force in April.