Unemployment Up

"The Maine Labor Department says the state's unemployment rate rose by seventh-tenths of a percentage point in May to 5.4 percent, Maine's highest rate in more than a decade.

Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman says last month's monthly increase was unusually large. The comparable seasonally adjusted national jobless rate for May was one-tenth of a percentage point higher, 5.5 percent.

Labor officials say the increase is due in part to the sagging national economy. But part of the rise is due to a statistical fluke, because jobless rates were measured a week after many college students finished their work study for the year but had not yet gotten summer jobs."

- MaineToday.com