BANGOR, Maine — Maine’s unemployment rate dipped to 4.1 percent in November, down slightly from October as the estimate of people employed and seeking work continued to fall.
The November jobless rate is the lowest since the early 2000s and continues a recent decline driven primarily by lower estimates of those in the labor force.
The rate was down from one year ago, when it was 5.5 percent.
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The state’s workforce trends have led to a decline in the share of the total population that is employed. That ratio has been higher in Maine than the nation as a whole since early 2008.
The latest estimates, which will be revised early next year, show about 59.5 percent of the state’s population is employed, compared with 59.3 nationally.
Payroll jobs, which make up the bulk of the total employment estimate, remained at a recent high in the November estimate, up by about 8,000 jobs compared with last year. The increase for the year is the balance of a drop in estimated government jobs and an increase in private sector work.
Maine’s unemployment rate estimate for November was lower than Massachusetts (4.7 percent), Rhode Island (5.2 percent) and Connecticut (5.1 percent). It was higher than estimates for New Hampshire (3.2 percent) and Vermont (3.7 percent).