Unemployment here and all over

NEW ENGLAND – The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics says the unemployment rates aren't good, but they are a lot less bad than they have been — or so it might seem.

For one measure, according to the Maine Department of Labor's (MDOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Maine doesn't have the highest jobless rate in New England. At 7.3 percent, Maine is ahead of Massachusetts, with its 8.2 percent, Connecticut with 9 and Rhode Island with 11.6 percent of the population out of work.

Nationally, 9.8 percent is the figure ,and Oxford County is one whole tenth of a point lower than that, at 9.7 percent. Last year at this time, the figure for our home county was 10.4 percent, so it is looking up, at least a little. It's worth noting that those are based on the raw numbers. That is, they're not seasonally adjusted, so there's no edge given for, say, highway construction workers, the summer tourist industry or any of the types of work that typically lay people off this time of year.

In the Paris-Bridgton Labor Market, which encompasses most of the Advertiser-Democrat's readership, the unemployment rate is 9.3 percent, That's four tenths of a percent below the state level and five tenths under the national level.

Over the year, that local statistic has roamed from 9.4 in November all the way up to 10.6, in January, 2010.  It dived steadily until it bottomed out in October at 9 percent. The record was 3.6 in 2000.

In the Bridgton-Paris area, in November, 2010, there were  12,550 people who were employed. There were 1,290 who were able to work, but were not employed — a 9.3 percent unemployment rate.

But what's it all mean?

Looking a little further, we can find that the lower numbers don't mean more people are employed.

According to Glenn Mills, Director of Economic Research at the BLS, the Maine economy overall is no longer losing jobs, but it's not really gaining any, either.

"The loss in unemployment figures is due more to people so discouraged they're no longer looking for work, or who have enrolled in educational programs and are therefore temporarily out of the labor force than it is to any increase in jobs," said Mills.