November 20, 2009
Labor
State Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman announced the preliminary unemployment rate for Maine was 8.2 percent in October, down slightly from a revised rate of 8.5 percent in September and up from 5.7 percent in October 2008. The number of unemployed totaled 57,200, up 16,700 from a year ago. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September and 6.6 percent a year ago.
Maine’s lower unemployment rate is primarily related to a declining labor force and is not an indication that workforce conditions have improved considerably.
“While Maine continues to have a somewhat lower unemployment rate than the nation, we remain deeply concerned for unemployed Mainers struggling to get by,” said Fortman. “We encourage job seekers to utilize the services available at local CareerCenters and Maine’s Job Bank at mainecareercenter.com”
Nonfarm wage and salary jobs declined 1,400 over the month to 591,200 in October. Job losses were spread across a number of sectors with the largest losses in retail trade, professional & business services, government, and financial activities.
Over the year through October the number of nonfarm jobs was down 19,700. Three-quarters of net job losses were in the manufacturing, construction, retail trade, and government sectors. Education and health services is the only sector with net job growth in the last 12 months.
Seasonally-adjusted unemployment rates in other New England states were 6.8 percent in New Hampshire, 6.5 percent in Vermont, 8.9 percent in Massachusetts, 12.9 percent in Rhode Island, and 8.8 percent in Connecticut.
The not seasonally-adjusted Maine unemployment rate was 7.6 percent in October, up from 5.3 percent a year ago. Not seasonally-adjusted unemployment rates ranged from 6.3 percent in Cumberland County to 11.1 percent in Piscataquis County. Over the year unemployment rates increased in all counties, with the largest increases in northwestern and eastern rim counties. The unemployment rate was up more than 2.5 percentage points from a year ago in Franklin, Oxford, Piscataquis, Somerset, and Washington counties.
Among the three metropolitan areas unemployment rates were lower than the statewide average in Portland-South Portland-Biddeford (6.5 percent) and Bangor (6.9 percent) and higher in Lewiston-Auburn (8.1 percent).
Detailed labor force and unemployment data for the state, counties, and 31 labor market areas, and nonfarm jobs data for the state and the three metropolitan areas is available at www.maine.gov/labor/lmis/data.html.
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