Panel to tackle youth exodus

AUGUSTA – Reacting to the steady number of young Mainers seeking careers beyond the state’s borders, legislative leaders announced the formation Monday of a new panel that will try to find ways to supplement the work force.

The Presiding Officers’ Advisory Task Force on Creating A Future For Youth in Maine is expected to hold its first meeting next month to identify motivating factors influencing the exodus of Maine’s young workers and how best to reverse the trend.

Maine Senate President Beverly C. Daggett, D-Augusta, and Maine House Speaker Pat Colwell, D-Gardiner, said the 13-member panel would be appointed by the two legislative leaders and charged with reporting its findings and recommendations to the Legislature by Dec. 8.

Daggett said numerous studies reinforce the conclusion that Maine’s youths are increasingly relocating to other states after graduating from high school and college. The drain on the work force has serious implications for the state’s future, she said, emphasizing:

. The average annual population growth in Maine through 2020 is expected to be 0.5 percent compared with the national average of 1 percent.

. Maine’s population now ranks fourth-oldest in the nation.

. The number of Mainers older than 65 is expected to increase from the 2000 level of 14 percent to 21 percent in 2020.

. Maine’s 65-plus population will grow by 50 percent during the next two decades compared with its overall population growth of 10 percent over the same time period.

Daggett said the new task force would develop specific strategies to create and expand employment opportunities along with increasing affordable education options in the state.

“Working together we can and will address this problem,” she said. “Our kids are our future.”

Commending the voters’ approval in June of a research and development bond aimed at attracting high-technology industries in the state, Colwell said Maine already was on the right track in its efforts to solve the problem of migrating youth. Lack of high-tech options lock many rural Mainers into “antiquated economic structures,” he said.