PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s unemployment rate remained at 4.7 percent in June, even with April and May, while the estimate of the state’s workforce continued to rise after dropping steadily for more than a year.
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The latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate the jobless rate is down 1 percentage point from the same month last year, a decline driven by a decrease in the estimated number of people looking for work since August 2013.
The estimate of people with jobs is about flat with one year ago, at about 660,000, while about 7,000 fewer people were estimated to be looking for work.
The estimate of payroll jobs — the majority of all employment in the state — remained up about 3,800 from one year ago, reflecting a loss of about 200 government jobs and a gain of 4,000 private sector jobs.
Maine’s unemployment rate for June came as the national jobless rate ticked down to 5.3 percent from 5.5 percent in May and 6.1 percent one year ago.
Maine’s estimated jobless rate was lower than the New England average of 4.8 percent, coming in below Rhode Island (5.9 percent) and Connecticut (5.7 percent). Maine’s rate was higher than Massachusetts (4.6 percent), New Hampshire (3.8 percent) and Vermont (3.6 percent).