AUGUSTA (AP) – With the latest unemployment figures, Maine has become the second New England state after Rhode Island to report that it has regained the jobs it lost during the recession.

Maine’s unemployment rate in June was 4.1 percent, which represented a drop of nearly a full percentage point compared to the same period last year, Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman said.

That translates into 6,100 fewer unemployed people. At the same time, nearly all 7,000 jobs lost during the economic slowdown in 2001 had been regained in Maine, state officials said.

“It’s a good sign,” said Laurie Lachance, the state economist. “It’s almost like we can breathe a little sigh of relief.”

Although Rhode Island is the only other New England state to boast that it has regained lost ground, that state’s June jobless rate, at 5.8 percent, was much higher than Maine’s. Other New England states reporting their seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for June include Vermont, 3.5 percent, and New Hampshire, 3.9 percent, Maine’s Labor Department said.

The leader of a group that advocates for low-income Mainers acknowledged that the state has regained lost jobs, but said they have not appeared at the rate predicted by proponents of the national tax cuts.

Christopher St. John, executive director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy, also said that Maine lost more jobs in manufacturing than any other states except New Hampshire and Vermont over the last three years.

St. John said jobs have been generated in other industries, “but not enough to keep pace with population growth.”

Fortman said job gains were recorded in health care and social assistance, retail trade, hospitality services, government and construction.

The total number of seasonally adjusted, non-farm jobs in June equaled the previous peak of 610,200 recorded for June 2001, Fortman said.

Those gains, combined with an increase in self employment, resulted in the total number of working Mainers reaching an all-time high in May and June of more than 670,000, Fortman said.