The percentage of Mainers either employed or looking for work returned to pre-pandemic levels in May 2024, according to statistics from the Maine Department of Labor released Tuesday.

Maine’s labor force participation rate, the percentage of people over age 16 either employed or looking for work, was 59.4%, a total of 695,441 residents last month, and up by more than 10,000 over May 2023 when the rate was 59.1%.

It’s a stark contrast to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Maine’s workforce plummeted by over 40,000, from 62% in February 2020 to 58.2% in April 2020, the lowest rate since Maine started keeping count in 1976.

As the national jobless rate continues to climb, Maine’s rate went down once again in May.

The monthly unemployment rate in May was 3%, down from 3.1% in April, but up from 2.5% in May 2023. Maine’s rate is a full percentage point below the national rate of 4% – the highest since the start of 2022. It also sits below New England’s rate of 3.4%.

Maine filled 9,300 nonfarm jobs from May 2023 to May 2024, bringing the total number of employed Mainers to 656,600. The count of filled jobs is based on surveys from employers across the state.

Gains in Maine’s health care and social assistance sector are behind much of the increase. Around 6,400 positions were filled in hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, social assistance services and ambulatory health care services – which includes doctor’s offices, dentists, labs and other outpatient care centers.

It comes as Maine’s health care industry has struggled to attract enough workers, causing a crisis in access to health care services.

Unemployment in Maine has been below 4% for 28 months – the second-longest such period – and below the U.S. average for all but two months over more than 16 years.

These estimates are based on two monthly surveys by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: the Current Population Survey, which collects data from households on labor force participation; and Current Employment Statistics, which surveys nonfarm employers by industry on the number of wage and salary jobs, hours worked and wages paid.