PORTLAND (AP) — Labor officials said Maine’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in 4 ½ years.

The state Labor Department said May’s unemployment rate for Maine was 6.8 percent, down slightly from April and half a percentage point in the past three months.

The last time the jobless rate was as low as 6.8 percent was November 2008.

Economist Glenn Mills said the sharp downward jobless rate in the past three months is a positive trend following 2012, when the rate was essentially flat the whole year.

Unemployment rates across the state range from 5.5 percent in Cumberland County to 10.1 percent in Washington County.