Maine’s 16 Counties Ranked by Unemployment Rate With a Surprising No. 1

Unemployment has always been an issue for our county and the state of Maine. Being out of a job and worse yet, not being able to find a job is a tough situation to be in. I've been there for a brief time, and it can be nerve-wracking.

Luckily the unemployment rate in Maine and the country is very low at the moment. As of November 2023, Maine had an unemployment rate of just 3%, with 21,000 people without a job.

We saw a spike in the unemployment rate in both 2010 when it hit 8.7%, and in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it reached 9.4%. Overall, Maine is in a pretty good spot at the moment when it comes to unemployment.

But rates aren't the same everywhere in Maine. Some counties have higher unemployment rates than the rest of the state.

Stacker put together a list of counties with the highest unemployment in Maine using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But rates aren't the same everywhere in Maine. Some counties have higher unemployment rates than the rest of the state.

Stacker put together a list of counties with the highest unemployment in Maine using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are three takeaways that I got from this list:

• In all counties in Maine, unemployment rates are down slightly over year-to-year.
• In all counties in Maine, unemployment rates are up slightly month-to-month.
• Despite the numbers, Maine as a whole, is near its lowest unemployment rate since 2000.