YORK COUNTY — If you’re currently out of work and looking for a job, employers in York County and across the state are hiring.

And for the 26th consecutive month as reported in the latest January figures, Maine’s unemployment rate has been lower than 4.0 percent, the longest such period of employment growth since 1976.  

According to the Maine Department of Labor, the state’s preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.0 percent for January 2018 dipped from revised rates of 3.1 percent for December 2017 and 3.4 percent reported in January 2017.

Statistics show that the overall number of unemployed in Maine fell 2,500 in one year and now stands at 21,000. 

The national preliminary unemployment rate of 4.1 percent for January 2018 was unchanged from December 2017 and down significantly from 4.8 percent one year ago.

The New England unemployment rate average was 3.7 percent in January with New Hampshire at 2.6 percent, 2.9 percent in Vermont, 3.5 percent in Massachusetts, 4.5 percent in Rhode Island and 4.5 percent in Connecticut.

Department of Labor figures from Maine reveal job gains primarily in the health care and social assistance and the professional and business services sectors were offset by job losses in the leisure and hospitality and the retail trade sectors, each of which was impacted by unusually extreme weather in January.

In York County, unemployment was 3.2 percent in January, which is down 0.7 percent from the 3.9 percent reported for the county in January 2017.   

Among all the states, New Hampshire had the lowest unemployment rate in January at 2.8 percent. Alaska had the highest jobless rate in the nation at 6.6 percent. 

Unemployment rates are determined by the number of unemployed individuals divided by the total number of people in the civilian labor force.  

Bureau of Labor Statistics data is collected from monthly household surveys and to be counted among the unemployed, job seekers have to be actively searching for work. 

The national and state unemployment rates are classified as lagging indicators into the overall snapshot of the economy. 

It’s because typically the last thing employers do following a recession is to take on new full-time workers. As a result, the national or state unemployment rate may not fall for months after the economy starts a recovery.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 ext. 326 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com.