LONDON: The Maine Department of Labor, in conjunction with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released July workforce estimates for Maine. The preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.9 percent was up from 3.7 percent in June and from the recent low of 3.4 percent in March and April. The unemployment rate was down from 4.4 percent one year ago. The number of unemployed declined 3,100 over the year to 26,600. The U.S. preliminary unemployment rate of 4.9 percent was unchanged from June and down from 5.3 percent one year ago.
The recent rise in unemployment estimates should not be interpreted as an indication workforce conditions in Maine are deteriorating. Other metrics, including payroll jobs, indicate continued improvement and expansion. As we point out each month in note 1 (below), preliminary estimates 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 change in underlying workforce conditions.
The employment to population ratio estimate of 60.2 percent was slightly above the U.S. average 59.7 percent. The New England unemployment rate averaged 4.3 percent. Rates for other states were 2.9 percent in New Hampshire, 3.2 percent in Vermont, 4.1 percent in Massachusetts, 5.5 percent in Rhode Island, and 5.7 percent in Connecticut.
