BLS LAUS · August 2026 preliminary · not seasonally adjusted
Kennebec County, ME Unemployment Rate
In August 2026, 3.2% of the labor force in Kennebec County was unemployed: 1,990 people out of the 61,779 who were working or actively looking for work. That is 0.2 points higher than in August 2025, when it was 3.0%.
August 2026
3.2%
preliminary; revised next month
August 2025
3.0%
same month a year earlier · +0.2 pts
Maine, August 2026
3.1%
statewide, same basis · +0.1 pts on the year
United States, August 2026
4.3%
not seasonally adjusted · −0.2 pts on the year
Check it: 1,990 unemployed ÷ 61,779 in the labor force × 100 = 3.22%, which BLS publishes rounded as 3.2%.
The last 13 months
County figures are not seasonally adjusted, so the rate rises and falls with the calendar: summer hiring, harvests, school years, holiday retail. Compare August 2026 with August 2025, not with last month.
n/a: BLS published no figure for October 2025 (data were not collected during the 2025 lapse in federal appropriations).
Kennebec County, Maine and the United States
All three on the same month and the same not-seasonally-adjusted basis. The national figure is the Current Population Survey's, which the state and county estimates are benchmarked to.
| Area | August 2026 | August 2025 | Change | Unemployed | Labor force |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kennebec County, ME | 3.2% | 3.0% | +0.2 pts | 1,990 | 61,779 |
| Maine | 3.1% | 3.0% | +0.1 pts | 21,910 | 705,652 |
| United States | 4.3% | 4.5% | −0.2 pts | 7,381,000 | 170,048,000 |
Unemployed and labor force are August 2026 counts. National counts are published to the nearest thousand.
Every published month
| Month | Rate | Unemployed | Employed | Labor force |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | 3.0% | 1,918 | 61,168 | 63,086 |
| September 2025 | 3.0% | 1,851 | 60,679 | 62,530 |
| October 2025 | — | — | — | — |
| November 2025 | 3.3% | 2,073 | 60,948 | 63,021 |
| December 2025 | 3.2% | 1,997 | 61,128 | 63,125 |
| January 2026 | 3.6% | 2,253 | 60,071 | 62,324 |
| February 2026 | 3.3% | 2,081 | 60,412 | 62,493 |
| March 2026 | 3.0% | 1,872 | 60,503 | 62,375 |
| April 2026 | 3.0% | 1,873 | 60,680 | 62,553 |
| May 2026 | 2.9% | 1,813 | 59,971 | 61,784 |
| June 2026 | 2.7% | 1,697 | 60,101 | 61,798 |
| July 2026 | 3.1% | 1,908 | 60,487 | 62,395 |
| August 2026 P | 3.2% | 1,990 | 59,789 | 61,779 |
| 2025 annual average (11 months; October not collected) | 3.1% | 1,982 | 61,187 | 63,169 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, county series for Kennebec County, ME (FIPS 23011), not seasonally adjusted, read from the public flat files on 2026-10-08. August 2026 is preliminary and will be revised when BLS publishes the next month.
Methodology
Source and formula. Every county, state and national figure is a published estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) for counties and states, and the Current Population Survey for the United States, all not seasonally adjusted. Unemployment rate = unemployed ÷ civilian labor force × 100. The pages recompute it from the published counts and print the published rate beside it; nothing is modelled or estimated here. Snapshot: August 2025 to August 2026, read from the BLS flat files on 2026-10-08; the site refreshes it monthly.
Why the year-earlier month, not last month. BLS seasonally adjusts state and national series but not county series. A county's rate moves with the calendar every year, so a change from one month to the next is mostly season. The same month a year earlier removes that, which is why it sits beside the latest month on every page and why there is no month-over-month figure.
Preliminary month. August 2026 carries BLS's preliminary flag. The newest month BLS publishes is preliminary and is revised when the following month is released; the revision is usually a tenth or two. Each March, BLS also revises the prior years for every area.
County figures are model-based. BLS does not survey each county. State estimates come from a statistical model that combines the Current Population Survey (a household survey), the Current Employment Statistics survey of employers, and counts of unemployment insurance claims; county estimates are built from the same inputs and constrained to sum to the state, and the states to the nation. They are the official figures, and they carry sampling and model error that BLS does not publish at the county level.
What these pages cannot tell you
- "Unemployed" means actively looking. A person counts as unemployed only if they had no job, were available for work and had looked for work in the previous four weeks. People who have stopped looking are not in the labor force and are in neither figure.
- Small counties move a lot. In a labor force of a few thousand, a hundred people changes the rate by several points; a single plant closing or a seasonal workforce arriving shows up as a swing. The counts on the page are there so the size of the base is visible.
- Where people live, not where they work. LAUS counts residents. A county whose residents commute elsewhere shows their employment, not its own employers'.
- No ranking. Model error and seasonal patterns differ by county, so an ordered list of counties would compare noise. Each page carries its state and the nation for scale and nothing else.
- October 2025 has no figure. Household survey data were not collected during the 2025 lapse in federal appropriations, and BLS has not estimated the month; 2025 annual averages are 11-month averages for the same reason.
Informational only, not economic, financial or career advice. Last reviewed: October 2026. Data: BLS LAUS and CPS, August 2026 (preliminary), pulled 2026-10-08.
All counties in Maine · Unemployment by county · How to read a county unemployment rate