AUGUSTA — The Maine Department of Labor says unemployment ticked up by one-tenth of a percentage point last month to 8.3 percent.

Commissioner Laura Fortman said today that February’s jobless rate is up from 8.2 percent in January and 7.7 percent in February 2009.

Fortman says that despite the unemployment increase the state’s employment picture is starting to improve, with hundreds of individuals re-entering the labor force in the last three months. The increase in the unemployment rate shows that more people are looking for work.

The unemployment rates across Maine ranged from a low of 7.3 percent in Cumberland County to 13.6 percent in Washington County. The state says that over the last year the largest increases in the unemployment rates were in Waldo and York counties.
 


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