Ohio's unemployment rate rose to a 25-year high in March as the state continued to lose jobs amid the recession, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said Friday.

A story from the AP says, the state's unemployment rate increased from a revised 9.5 percent in February to 9.7 percent last month, the highest rate since April 1984, department spokesman Brian Harter said.

"We continue to see a reflection of the economic trend that's going on across the country here in Ohio. In particular in this part of the country, that has meant a large loss in manufacturing jobs," Harter said.

But employment also continued to decline in Ohio's services sector during March, the department said.

The state's unemployment rate has gone up by more than two full percentage points since October and November, when it held steady at 7.3 percent.

State officials expect Ohio will continue to see several more months of losses and little recovery in the state's unemployment rate until early 2010, Harter said.