Maine unemployment rate shows modest, but perhaps slowing, improvement
File Photo / Renee Cordes
After the pandemic forced restaurants and other business to close their doors at least temporarily, Maine's unemployment rate hit a historic high of 10.4%.
The unemployment rate in Maine during October continued to signal an improved economy, but the recovery may be slowing.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the month decreased to 5.4% from 6.1% for September, the Maine Department of Labor said Friday. The number of unemployed Mainers decreased by 5,100 to a total of 36,800 in October.
However, the decrease was smaller than ones in August and September, after the percentage of unemployed residents spiked to 9.9%. Previously, the state’s unemployment rate hit a high of 10.4% during April, the first full month of the pandemic in Maine.
October unemployment data also showed a modest gain of 1,600 nonfarm payroll jobs in Maine. The private sector added 3,900 jobs, primarily in the leisure and hospitality, retail, professional and business services, manufacturing, and construction sectors. Jobs in the public sector decreased 2,300, mostly due to the end of temporary jobs related to the 2020 U.S. Census.
The 589,200 nonfarm jobs in October was up 56,400 from the April low, but remained 48,100 lower than in February, before the pandemic began to affect the labor market.
As in recent months, the Labor Department cautioned that Maine’s unemployment rate underestimates job displacement, since public health concerns and related factors prevent many jobless people from seeking or being available to work, as they normally would.
Those who were not available or did not engage in work search are not counted as unemployed. If labor force participation was as high as it was in February, before the pandemic, and jobless Mainers were classified correctly, the state’s unemployment rate would have been 9.3% in October, the Labor Department said in a news release.
Other data
According to data that was not seasonally adjusted, unemployment rates were lowest for Sagadahoc County, at 4.1%, and highest in Oxford County, at 6.3%.
Among Maine’s three metro areas, the unemployment rate was below the statewide average in Bangor (4.3%), and close to the average in Portland-South Portland (4.7%) and Lewiston-Auburn (5%).
The U.S. unemployment rate during October was 6.9%, down from 7.9% in September. Across New England, October unemployment levels were: Connecticut, 6.1%; Massachusetts, 7.4%; New Hampshire, 4.2%; Rhode Island, 7% and Vermont, 3.2%.
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