AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Labor Department says January’s unemployment rate was 7 percent, the same rate as December.
Commissioner Robert Winglass said Tuesday the preliminary, seasonally adjusted rate was down 1 percentage point from January 2011.
For the month, 49,500 Mainers were unemployed, compared to 56,000 who were jobless a year earlier. Cumberland County had the lowest jobless rate, while Washington County had the highest.
Unemployment rates across New England range from 5 percent in Vermont to 10.9 percent in Rhode Island, with the regional average coming in at 7.2 percent. The national jobless rate in January was 8.3 percent.
Must be Lepage’s fault.
Damn those Republicans
Good job governor!!!
Let’s talk about this again later this year when the BoA call center lays off their people, Hampden sorting facility is a ghost town, Dix complete their lay offs, etc.
BoA clearly stated that they were moving those positions to other locations for the most part, so you might want to drop that off your “jobs lost” list. But still, the others will have an impact.
So you think everyone is going to move to Belfast or “other locations”? Convince those people that it is OK to just sell your house and move for a job that probably does pay well enough to begin with and considering the cost of gas I don’t see many people jumping in line to travel back and forth, so finding another job or joining the unemployed is what the majority will wind up doing
You might want to reread what you posted. Chances are if you own your house you are making a pretty good living. Also if you own your own house you wont be able to keep it on unemployment. Most people who own their own house have a good work ethic so unemployment and welfare is not an option. These people have until this fall to find another job. There is plenty of work out there for those who want to work. If you think you’re worth $20 an hour then I guess you will starve. But the ones who will work for $10 an hour will do just fine.
Re read your post, suggesting that welfare is not an option because people own a home. 7% is already unemployed, what percentage of jobs in the area are available in comparison to the people about to loose theirs? Implying that everyone owns a home is inaccurate, it is an example, I am sure several people rent.
Will people work for $10 an hour sure. Will people find a job? Sure, guess what stops them, jobs available, and employers using their skill called “I don’t want to spend money to train people and therefore I want to hire someone with 3 degrees and 5 years of experience”
With all of that said, the job selection, will be slim.
Maybe you can afford to commute from Orono to Belfast every day at 4 dollar gas but I can’t.
I blame Bush.
I don’t understand how it could be only 7%. I guess the State or Government don’t count the bums that live off the State, because if you counted them it would be way over 7%.
Those that were laid off in the beginning of all this mess have either exhausted all their unemployment benefits, taken something temporary or part time or given up all together and are not counted anymore. I honestly believe 7% is a very artificially low number and does not refect what the true amount really is.
Same here. I think the same is true for almost any US state, right now. They can only count those they have signed up.
This is BS.
The BDN doesn’t want to report the fact that so many Mainer’s are not even counted as unemployed now. The real statistic is the U-6 number put out by the Bureau of Labor Stats. It counts workers who aren’t receiving bennies or have stopped looking for work. That number is 15.1% as of Jan 2012. It is actually about on par with the national average.
http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm
Why the BDN won’t look into the numbers more deeply may say something about their bias towards the current White House occupant than anything else.
Great Job Governor Paul Lepage for making policy thats keep UE under 7%. Thank you sir.
That is why Maine is the worst state in the Union to get a job. LePage must have wrote that arbitrary number. He LIES. If you figure most people gave up looking for a job or just moved out of state to get a job.