Jobless rate in Ohio reaches highest level since April ’84

COLUMBUS (AP) — 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.

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.

The state will release county unemployment rates Tuesday.

“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.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio during March was 578,000, up from 567,000 in February. The number of jobless has increased by 211,000 in the past year.