PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s jobless rate ticked up slightly to 3.5 percent in May with a continued turnaround in estimates of the size of Maine’s labor force. It remains at a low last experienced in the early 2000s.
May was the second consecutive month in which the preliminary estimate of people with jobs was higher than one year ago. The latest figures show a two-year stretch where employment estimates fell compared with one year before.
Despite that, Maine’s unemployment rate dropped from the fall of 2013 to December 2015. That’s because the estimate of Maine’s total labor force fell at a faster rate.
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While the employment estimate was up for the second month in a row, compared with one year ago, the estimate of the total labor force over the year was down.
The jobless rate of 3.5 percent — reflecting the estimated share of the labor force unable to find work — was down from 4.5 percent one year ago.
Maine’s rate in May was lower than the New England average of 4.5 percent, coming in higher than New Hampshire (2.7 percent) and Vermont (3.1 percent) and lower than Massachusetts (4.2 percent), Rhode Island (5.4 percent) and Connecticut (5.7 percent).
The national rate dipped to 4.7 percent in May, down from 5.5 percent one year ago.
The latest estimates for Maine reflect a correction of the estimates based on household surveys, which had for months have shown contradictory trends from a survey of employer payrolls and created some confusion about just what’s going on in Maine’s workforce as the state’s economy continues to recover from the Great Recession.
Over the year, that survey of employer payrolls indicates about 1,600 more people are on payrolls, with the payroll employment estimate of 611,800 for May.