With an official investigation of the Maine Department of Labor looming, state legislators say they are still hearing from constituents that the new unemployment filing system is leaving them in the dark without their benefits. Rep. Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, and Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, both members of the legislative committee that has called for the […]
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Maine’s unemployment rate dips below 3 percent
Maine’s unemployment numbers in February dropped to the lowest rate in 42 years. The state’s preliminary rate of 2.9 percent hasn’t been seen since 1976, according to a release from the Maine Department of Labor. The number of unemployed Mainers dropped by 3,000 from January levels to 20,000 in February — also a level not […]
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Lawmakers rebuke Labor Department over claims of rushing unemployment system, destroying records
Members of a legislative committee are calling for top officials in the Maine Department of Labor to take responsibility for rushing out a faulty unemployment filing system and allegedly destroying records of claimants who were not able to access their benefits for weeks. The new filing system, known as ReEmployME, was put in use despite […]
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How Maine bungled rollout of new jobless claims system
State officials bungled the recent rollout of a new unemployment filing system, rushing out the beleaguered software with little training or care for the down-on-their-luck people seeking benefits even as the department’s leader fostered a toxic atmosphere of neglect and ordered complaints to be destroyed. That’s according to an internal memo marked “confidential,” obtained by […]
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Changes ahead for trucking industry
WASHINGTON — The future of trucking may tell us a lot about the future of work. It’s no secret that many Americans fear losing their jobs to automation. In a Pew Research Center poll last October, nearly three-quarters of respondents worried that “computers and robots could do most of the work currently done by humans.” […]
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Maine unemployment claims system will be down for a week
Mainers will be unable to file unemployment claims for one week — from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 — as the state implements a new claims filing system. The Maine Department of Labor has announced that they are joining the ReEmployUSA partnership — which so far includes Mississippi, Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut — to streamline processing […]
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U.S. gains 209,000 jobs; unemployment rate falls to 4.3 percent
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 209,000 jobs in July, a second straight month of robust gains that underscore the economy’s vitality as it enters a ninth year of expansion. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate slipped to 4.3 percent, matching a 16-year low first reached in May. Growth in Americans’ paychecks, however, remains […]
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Maine hits record low unemployment rate
Maine’s unemployment rate continues to improve, setting a new record low in March when only 3 percent of Mainers seeking jobs were without one. Nationally, the rate was at 4.5 percent. The initial estimate of nonfarm payroll jobs in March reached 623,000, a new high. That’s up by 5,300 from this time last year, statistics […]
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Maine’s unemployment rate shrinks again to lowest in 17 years
Maine’s unemployment rate has hit its lowest point since Christmas of 2000. The February rate was down to 3.2 percent, according to the Maine Department of Labor. There are only seven states with a better employment rate than Maine, including both Vermont and New Hampshire. If the labor market continues to provide jobs for the […]
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Maine unemployment rate is lowest since 2001
Maine’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in 16 years. The state’s January unemployment rate of 3.5 percent is the lowest it’s been since March 2001, according to the Maine Department of Labor. The preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was down from 3.8 percent in December, down 1,300 people over the year to 24,300 […]