Maine’s 7.6% unemployment rate is on par with one year ago, but shows an uptick from early 2012, when that seasonally adjusted figure was at 7%.
Maine’s new department of labor commissioner, Jeanne Paquette, announced the August work force assessment Friday, which estimates that 54,000 in Maine are unemployed.
Nationally, unemployment stood at 8.1%, down from 9.1% a year ago. In a press release, Paquette’s office identified the national decrease as a drop in the number of people actively seeking work, which increased by 2.7 million over the last year.
Maine did not see that same drop in active job-seekers.
Unemployment in Maine hit a 10-year high through the winter of 2009, when the seasonally adjusted rate stood around 8.4%.
Ten years ago Maine’s unemployment rate was 4.5%, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.
