State jobless rate down slightly in November

AUGUSTA – Maine’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped slightly last month and now stands at 4.5 percent, according to the state Department of Labor.

Commissioner Laura Fortman said the decrease, from 4.6 percent in October, reflects the addition of 500 nonfarm jobs during the month.

“With job gains in eight of the last nine months, there were 6,000 more jobs in November than there were a year ago,” Fortman said.

During the past year, the biggest job gains came in retail trade, health care and social assistance, construction, and professional and business services. Some of those gains were offset, however, by losses in the manufacturing sector.

The national unemployment rate in November was 5.4 percent.