AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – The Maine Labor Department says Maine’s preliminary seasonally adjusted June unemployment rate was 8.5 percent – up from 8.3 percent in May and from 5.2 percent in June 2008.

The national unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in June.

Officials said June unemployment rates elsewhere in New England included New Hampshire’s 6.8 percent; 8.6 percent in Massachusetts, 8.1 percent in Connecticut and 12.4 percent in Rhode Island.

New federal data Friday showed unemployment topping 10 percent in 15 states and the District of Columbia. Michigan surpassed 15 percent.

In Maine, a spring forecast by the state’s Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission predicted continued employment losses through 2009 and the beginning of 2010.