Maine's unemployment rate rose again slightly in October to 3.4 percent.
The State Labor Department says it was the 35th-consecutive month that unemployment was below 4 percent; that's the longest such streak on record.
“How low we can go is an interesting question,” says state labor economist Glenn Mills. “We're going to find out I'm sure, but it would be very difficult to go much lower than this.”
Mills says there are both positives and negatives to such a low unemployment rate. He says the good part is that there are jobs for people and that wages have seen a healthy increase.
“Over the last four years we've had fastest wage growth adjusted for inflation that we've seen in nearly 2 decades,” Mills says. “The flip side of that is many employers say they're very challenged to find the staff they need.”
He says number of people in Maine either working or looking for work has bounced back from the recession.