Indiana added more workers than any other state in September, fueled mainly by gains in the hard-hit manufacturing sector.

Forty-three states reported job losses in September, while seven gained jobs, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The numbers underscore the uneven nature of the nation’s economic recovery.

Indiana not only recorded a national best but reported its third straight drop in the unemployment rate, by 0.3 of a percentage point, to 9.6 percent. The state also boasted a rate lower than all of its neighbors, which had double-digit rates.

Yet more than 287,000 Hoosiers remained without jobs.

September shined in the Indianapolis metro area, where 7.7 percent was the lowest jobless rate since 8 percent in January. Marion County last month recorded 8.4 percent joblessness, while Hamilton County had the area’s lowest rate, 6.1 percent. Madison County, at 9.7 percent, had the area’s highest unemployment.

Indiana benefited from a rebound in the auto sector last month and a healthy medical device industry, said Robert Guell, a professor at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.

Auto parts and assembly plants ramped up production as General Motors, Honda and Chrysler sought to replenish inventories depleted by the popular Cash for Clunkers program, in which customers traded old vehicles for newer, more fuel-efficient models.

In September, Indiana added 4,400 jobs, an increase from August, with manufacturing posting the strongest gain with 3,000 positions. The professional and business service sectors also filled 2,900 jobs. Construction lost 3,300.

Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, was encouraged by the added jobs but said, “It’s still too early to say we have turned the corner.”

Matt Kinghorn, economic research analyst with Indiana University’s Indiana Business Research Center, agreed.

“It’s really encouraging news in seeing Indiana make improvements and (in some sectors) really dramatic improvements. . . . It’s still too early to say that Indiana is out of the woods.”

The Midwest region saw its unemployment rate drop for the second straight month, to 9.8 percent from 10 percent in August. It was the only region where the rate declined.

Michigan reported the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 15.3 percent, up 0.1 percentage point in September. Other neighbors also recorded increases of less than a percentage point, with Kentucky’s rate at 10.9 percent, Illinois at 10.5 percent and Ohio at 10.1 percent.

Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, said, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, it looks like Indiana is pulling out of the recession faster than our neighbors.”

Patrick Kiely, president and CEO of the Indiana Manufacturers Association, said he’ll take the happy news after two years of job declines. He said the state has gained about 12,000 manufacturing jobs since dropping from 543,000 in January 2008 to 428,700 in June 2009.

“It is coming back,” but “everybody’s still as cautious as they can be.”

The Labor Department said Florida, Nevada and Rhode Island last month posted their highest jobless rates on records dating to 1976. The national unemployment rate in September rose 0.1 of a percentage point to 9.8 percent.

After Michigan, the highest jobless rates were in Nevada, 13.3 percent; Rhode Island, 13 percent; California, 12.2 percent; and South Carolina, 11.6 percent.