PORTLAND, Maine (WGAN) The Maine Dept. of Labor says roughly 66,000 Mainers filed for continued state and federal jobless claims last week.

That number was down slightly from about 67,500 workers the previous week.

Labor officials recorded about 2,800 initial claims for state and federal unemployment benefits.

The state has now received more than 1,000 initial unemployment claims for 25th consecutive weeks.

Between March 15 and September 5, the Maine Department of Labor paid out over $1.44 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits.