INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's deepening recession failed to halt government hiring and growth in the education and health-service sectors in January, even as the state's factories continued jettisoning jobs, new federal statistics show.

A state-by-state unemployment report released Wednesday by the U.S. Labor Department shows that Indiana lost about 12,400 jobs in January, when its unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent — the highest level in a quarter-century.

About 90 percent of those lost jobs hit manufacturers, said Carol Rogers, deputy director of the Indiana Business Research Center.

The report showed some good news, with slight job growth in government, heavy construction, and leisure and hospitality, among others.

The most significant hiring came in Indiana's government offices, which hired about 5,200 new workers in January.

Rogers said nearly all of those jobs are at the federal level, with the largest portion temporary workers hired to help collect data for the 2010 U.S. census.

The government sector also includes publicly funded colleges and universities, which typically benefit during recessions, Rogers said.

The state's aging baby boomer population ensured a slight increase in hiring at hospitals, doctors' and dentists' offices and nursing homes, the numbers show.

Indiana's construction industry added about 2,300 jobs in January. Rogers said those jobs appear to have come mainly from highway construction projects that are being paid for by some of the $3.8 billion the state received from leasing the Indiana Toll Road.