Maine’s August unemployment rate and labor force participation rate remained largely unchanged in comparison to recent months, according to the Maine Department of Labor’s (MDOL) Friday press release.
For the third month in row, the state’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate has been calculated at 2.8 percent, while labor force participation came in at 59.9 percent.
Nationwide, unemployment for August came in at 4.2 percent with a labor force participation rate of 62.7 percent. Unemployment for New England was calculated at 4.2 percent.
Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that is regularly employed to remove the influences of “predictable seasonal patterns” in order to reveal a more accurate measure of how the employment situation has evolved over time.
In August of last year, unemployment was at 3 percent and labor force participation was at 59.4 percent.
The state’s three-month average unemployment rate for June through August came in at 2.8 percent, a .3 percent decrease compared to the previous three-month average of 3.1 percent.
The three-month average for labor force participation has also moved in a slightly positive direction, increasing from 59.4 percent in March through May to 59.8 percent in June through August.
[RELATED: July Unemployment Remains Low, Workforce Participation Below National Average — MDOL Report]
For the past 33 months, Maine’s unemployment rate has remained below four percent, and for all but two months of the past sixteen years, it has been below the national average.
Maine’s labor force participation, however, is significantly lower than the rate nationwide, as well as in comparison to other demographically similar states.
Labor force participation rates are representative of the proportion of working-age individuals who are either employed or actively searching for work.
Although there are a number of different ways to calculate the labor force participation rate, the MDOL arrives at its statistics by considering all individuals over the age of 16. Consequently, retirees and other elderly individuals are included in these numbers.
As a result of this, it can be more complicated to parse these statistics, particularly given Maine’s aging population.
Looking at states with a similar average age, however, reveals that there is likely more to the story in Maine than simply an older-than-average population.
While Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont all have a similar median age, New Hampshire and Vermont have significantly higher rates of labor force participation this month – at 66.5 percent and 66.1 percent respectively.
The MDOL cautions in their press release that their figures are “preliminary” and therefore “should be considered in the context of whether they are below, near, or above historical or U.S. averages, rather than if they are up or down a few tenths of a point from some other month.”
Relax people janets got it under control. Just so you know maine unemployment is “transitory” just like inflation, and step one to getting unemployment down is to import thousands more people into the state because, it’s the only way to save democracy for the transvestite children that haven’t been lucky enough to get aborted. This state is a bad joke now.
So THIS is the reason that Janet Mills wants 75,000 illegals to come to Maine ?
We’ve got jobs but NOT Enough Workers ?
Maybe we need to kick some deadbeats off of welfare ?
Maybe too much free stuff for freeloaders …..?
Too many potheads ? Too many drunks ?
What has happened to Maine ?
Until door-to-door searches for narcotics manufacture, packaging, and trafficking is done, you can count on that number going lower. Narcotics criminals attract robbery and kidnapping criminals, so it is not possible to leave properties unmatched while off serving the community at work. This is the number one reason why penobscot PD is understaffed – a lot of.people who would be excellent deputys are instead watching their own properties because neighborhoods, ston y ridge rd in Eddington to name but one, are infested with drug selling scum and numerous assistants that are selling out of vehicles and homes all day every day. Because corrupt town officials are basicly making up tax amounts instead of following mil rate equations, narcotics sellers become aware of this and proceed to blackmail towns into permitting the narcotics trafficking operations.
This means we Maine working folk shod leave the state or stop working Look were our taxes are going and join them.
Maine the welfare state.
Maybe Sores will take over the Payments, Janet.
Some statements in this article are inaccurate and others require context. The standard measure of labor force participation is age 16 and over in all states – what MDOL does is not different. Looking at subsets by age, participation is highest among those age 25 to 54 in Maine and all other states. Maine has an usually high share of people that are retirement age.
Labor force participation in southern and central regions of Maine is similar to in New Hampshire, as it has been for decades. The reason total participation is lower is because the forest products, agriculture, and manufacturing economic base in the north of the state went into decline decades ago, leaving the region with limited opportunity for young people. Young people who aspire to a better life are forced to leave the north for work, which has left the region with an older population that has low rates of labor force participation and educational attainment and high rates of poverty. These patterns can be seen in pages 27 to 34 in http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/workforcereport/narrative.pdf.
The challenge of what to do for the economic redevelopment of the northern rim region of the state has befuddled both Republican and Democratic administrations for decades. What Libby describes in her article is nothing more than an observation of a situation that has persisted for a very long time.
I like factual articles like this. It doesn’t seem politically biased. It doesn’t blame and shame but brings to light a potential problem to think about. Why might our workforce be different from NH and VT? Does it need change? As others commented, is substance use within our population different from NH and VT? Are people with disabilities counted in all state workforce percentages? Does our state have a higher percentage of retirees and children than working age adults, thus skewing our median age? Why do we include older teens who are likely still in high school and/or college, and do we have more students in college who are not also working? Do we have a higher percentage of older adults in college trying to change their career? Is our state taking longer to recover from the pandemic? How many jobs are actually available? Do different counties have different workforce participation rates?
This is only the second article I’ve read from The Maine Wire. I just found this site tonight and I’m glad I did. I hope the author continues the good work!