Maine unemployment up slightly in November
Photo / Renee Cordes
Hiring signs such as the one shown here at Shaw's grocery store in South Portland are still all too common in Maine as the unemployment rate in November barely budged from October.
Maine's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate inched up to 3.7% in November from 3.6% in October, the Maine Department of Labor said in its latest monthly barometer released Friday.
Total non-farm wage and salary jobs increased by 3,000 to an all-time high of 645,1000. The largest increases in the month were in the professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and in the health care and social assistance sectors.
In the three months through November, the number of jobs increased an average of 2,200 per month over the previous three months through August.
The three-month average was 0.8 percentage points higher than the average for 2019, before the pandemic Private-sector jobs were 1.2% higher, and government jobs were 1.6% lower, mostly in public higher education.
Among Maine's three metropolitan areas, unemployment was below the statewide average in Portland-South Portland at 2.9%, and close to the statewide average in Bangor (3.2%) and Lewiston-Auburn (3.6%).
Across Maine's 16 counties, unemployment ranged from a low of 2.8% in Sagadahoc County to a high of 5.2% in Somerset County.
Work week and earnings data
The latest Maine Department of Labor report also showed that the private-sector work week averaged 34 hours and earnings averaged $29.52 an hour in November. Earnings were up 5.4% over a year earlier, led by a 10.1% gain in the trade, transportation and utilities sectors.
The work week was longest in the construction and manufacturing sectors and shortest in leisure ad hospitality, which also saw the lowest earnings. At the other end of the pay scale, earnings were highest in professional and business services.
The Maine Department of Labor is scheduled to release December data on Jan. 24, five days after the Mainebiz "Five on the Future" economic forecasting event on Jan. 19 in Portland.
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