A summary is below. More details are available on our State Employment Page.

January 22, 2019

Summary

• Maine lost 1,000 jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.4 percent in December according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

• Over the past twelve months, Maine added 4,300 jobs and the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point from 3.1 percent.

• In December, Maine's private sector lost 800 jobs and over the past twelve months, it created 4,100 jobs.

• The number of unemployed Mainers rose by 58 in December, and over the past year, 1,202 Mainers found jobs.

• Maine’s labor force participation rate decreased to 63.4 percent from 63.5 percent in December.  Since last year, the labor force participation rate is unchanged.

• The national unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 3.9 percent in December.  State employment and unemployment data for January is scheduled for release on March 11, 2019.  The national employment situation report for January will be released on Friday, February 1, 2019.