PORTLAND, Maine — The estimate of job seekers unable to find work in Maine dipped slightly in November, to 5.7 percent from 5.8 percent in October, indicating about 40,200 people continue to seek work and can’t find a job.
The preliminary estimates come as the national unemployment rate estimate held steady at 5.8 percent, down from 7 percent for the same month one year ago.
The latest estimate for Maine also is down from November 2013, when the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent.
The November figures confirm a long-term rise in total nonfarm payroll jobs, which is the result of a decline in government employment and a rise in private-sector jobs.
The state continued to see a drop in the ratio of employed people to the total population, a figure that has beat the national average at more than 60 percent since the depths of the recession. That’s compared with slightly more than 59 percent of the national population.
In November, Maine’s unemployment estimate was below the New England average of 5.8 percent, coming in lower than Massachusetts (5.8 percent), Rhode Island (7.1 percent) and Connecticut (6.5 percent) but higher than New Hampshire (4.1 percent) and Vermont (4.3 percent).