AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine's unemployment rate held steady in June, at 4.7 percent. The rate is the same as May's, but it's down 1 percent from last year at this time. It's also below the unemployment rates of both the U.S. and New England.
Glenn Mills is an economist with the state Department of Labor; he says although the unemployment rate hasn't moved, the long-term numbers are a good sign.
"Yeah, the labor market is getting healthier all the time - 4.7 percent is below the 20-year average that prevailed before the recession hit in 2008. So we're getting to a tighter labor market circumstance."
But Mills says the labor market's not fully back yet - labor force participation is still a little lower than it was before the recession.
As is typical, joblessness wasn't evenly distributed around the state last month. Maine's metropolitan areas - Portland-South Portland, Lewiston, and Bangor - all had unemployment numbers below the state average. Portland-South Portland's rate was the lowest, at 3.7 percent.
