AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine’s unemployment rate held steady in January and has been at about the same low percentage for more than two years.
The Maine Department of Labor said Monday the preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was estimated at 3.1% for the month. It was 3% in December and 3.2% one year previously.
The state’s unemployment rate has been less than 4% for more than four years and the labor department said it has been effectively the same for more than two years because of the margins of error in calculating the percentage.
The state’s unemployment rate was helped by job gains at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, labor officials said.
The nationwide unemployment rate of 3.6% in January was also about the same as the previous month, and it was down slightly from a year earlier.
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