Maine's unemployment in April remains at record low
Courtesy / Maine Department of Labor
Workforce conditions remained tight throughout Maine in April, with very low unemployment, particularly in the southwest portion of the state.
Maine Department of Labor reported the preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 3%, unchanged from March. That’s down from 3.8% a year ago and remains the lowest unemployment rate for Maine since the current reporting methodology was implemented in 1976.
The number of unemployed people was down over the year to 21,000, according to the MDOL’s latest monthly report.
The state’s unemployment rate has been below 4% for the last seven months and for 15 of the last 18 months.
Comparisons with region, U.S.
Maine’s percentage of unemployment for April continues to be lower than the national and region-wide averages.
Nationwide, the preliminary unemployment rate of 4.4% in April was little changed from 4.5% in March and down from 5% one year ago. The New England unemployment rate averaged 3.9%.
April unemployment rate estimates for other states in the region were 2.8% in New Hampshire, 3.1% in Vermont, 3.9% in Massachusetts, 4.3% in Rhode Island and 4.9% in Connecticut.
Rates declined over the year in all counties. The lowest rate was 2.4% in Cumberland County and the highest was 6.4% in Washington County.
Unemployment rates were lower than the statewide average in all three metro areas: Portland-South Portland (2.5%), Lewiston-Auburn (3%) and Bangor (3.3%).
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