AROOSTOOK COUNTY — According to officials with the Maine Department of Labor, not seasonally-adjusted data shows that Aroostook County has seen a decrease in unemployment.
While the non seasonally-adjusted data from September of 2009 showed an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent, the same data for 2010 has listed unemployment at 7.8 percent. Aroostook County was said to have the sixth-highest unemployment rate in the state. The lowest non seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 5.2 percent in Lincoln County, while the highest was nine percent in Piscataquis County; the state average was 6.5 percent. Rates were generally lowest along the coast and highest in northern and border regions.
Even Maine’s highest level unemployment rate was lower that the average U.S. non seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 9.2 percent for September.
State Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman announced the preliminary unemployment rate for Maine was 7.7 percent in September, down from 8 percent in August and 8.1 percent a year ago. The number of unemployed totaled 53,100, down 4,100 from a year ago. The national unemployment rate was 9.6 percent, unchanged from August and down slightly from 9.8 percent a year ago.
“We recognize that the economy remains challenging for unemployed workers,” Fortman said. “As we have previously noted, there is some variability from month to month in the employment and unemployment data and we encourage people to evaluate long term trends.”
