Maine Unemployment Rate 6.7 Percent in October Bookmark and Share

November 22, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 22, 2013
Contact: Glenn Mills 207-621-5192

State Labor Commissioner Jeanne Paquette released September and October workforce estimates for Maine.

Seasonally Adjusted Statewide Data

Survey of Households - The preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate estimate for Maine was 6.7 percent in October?the lowest figure since November 2008?down from 6.9 percent in September and 7.2 percent one year ago. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 47,300 were unemployed, down 3,800 over the year.

The share of the population that is employed continued to gradually trend higher in Maine to 61.0 percent. The national employment to population ratio of 58.3 percent remained at about the same level it has been at for four years. October was the 73rd consecutive month the share of employed population in Maine exceeded the national average.

The U.S. unemployment rate estimate was 7.3 percent, little changed from 7.2 percent in September and down from 7.9 percent one year ago. The New England estimate was 7.1 percent. Rates for other states were 5.1 percent in New Hampshire, 4.5 percent in Vermont, 7.2 percent in Massachusetts, 9.2 percent in Rhode Island, and 7.9 percent in Connecticut.

Survey of Employer Payrolls ? Preliminary estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate there were 600,900 nonfarm payroll jobs in October, up 3,600 from one year ago. The estimate of U.S. nonfarm payroll jobs was up 204,000.

Not Seasonally Adjusted Substate Data

The not seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in October, down from 6.6 percent one year ago. Not seasonally adjusted rates ranged from 4.6 percent in Cumberland and Sagadahoc Counties to 8.4 percent in Washington County. Rates tended to be lower than the statewide average in southern and coastal counties and higher than average in northern and rim counties.

The unemployment rate was below the statewide average in all three metropolitan areas: Portland-South Portland-Biddeford (4.8 percent), Bangor (5.5 percent) and Lewiston-Auburn (5.5 percent).

This release is available at http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/news/release.html . Detailed labor force and unemployment data for the state, counties, and 31 labor market areas; nonfarm jobs data for the state and the three metropolitan areas; and much more is available at http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/data.html .

November estimates will be released Friday, December 20.

NOTES

  1. Preliminary unemployment estimates for Maine tend to move in a direction for several months and then reverse course. Those directional trends are largely driven by a smoothing procedure and may not indicate a directional change in underlying workforce conditions. Annual revisions (to be published in March) will eliminate those directional patterns. A chart illustrating preliminary estimates compared to annually revised figures for the last two years is available at http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/revisions.html .

  2. Nonfarm payroll jobs estimates tend to be volatile from month to month. Estimates for the period from October 2012 to September 2013 will be replaced with actual payroll data in March 2014. The job count is likely to show less volatility than preliminary estimates.

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