Study: State resources not keyed to future jobs

AUGUSTA – Maine educational institutions and job-training programs are not meeting employers’ demands in the short term or expectations over the next decade, according to a study for Gov. John Baldacci’s work-force cabinet.

“We need to align resources with the programs that match with the kind of needs that the economy is generating,” John Dorrer, director of Labor Market Information Services in the state Department of Labor, said last week.

Baldacci’s work-force cabinet group, made up of the commissioners of Labor, Education and Economic Development, representatives of the University of Maine System and the Community College System, was created to coordinate state work-force development plans.

The group asked Dorrer to analyze current job trends and project them into the future to determine what job training and education programs need to be modified or created.

Statistics Dorrer developed in the draft report highlight several problem areas. For example, over a decade, both baccalaureate and associate degrees conferred by Maine colleges and universities declined slightly.

Demographics over the 10-year period saw college enrollment vary, but in the last two years, enrollment at both the university system and the community college system have increased.

“It is crucial we increase not just bachelor’s degrees, but associate degrees as well as part of the work force we will need in the years ahead,” Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said last week.

She said the data developed by the cabinet group will help another panel created by Baldacci to plan a system that integrates educational goals from kindergarten through higher education.

Gendron said projected demands in education, health care and the service sectors will require changes at all levels of education.

The Labor Department study said most of the new jobs that will be created in Maine by 2012 would be in the service sector.

Of the nearly 64,000 jobs to be created, the study estimates 28,000 would be in education and health services. Trade, transportation and utility services are expected to add 14,000 jobs.

“This is a draft report, “Dorrer said, “but those are the trends we are seeing.”

Another 10,000 manufacturing jobs are expected to be lost by 2012, the report says. The average annual wage of those jobs has been $33,529. In industries gaining jobs, the average wage has been $27,290 a year.

Dorrer said service sector jobs that pay well have not increased enough to offset the higher-paying jobs in manufacturing jobs that have been lost.

The study indicated one reason for the loss of manufacturing jobs is improved technology that doubled the productivity of workers between 1980 and 2000. In short, Dorrer said, workers are producing as much product with half the number of people it took in 1980.

Another concern is developing the skilled workers needed to support the new economy. The governor said the focus cannot just be on four-year degree programs.

“We need people to fix the computers and all those other skills needed in the knowledge-based economy,” he said.

The construction industry currently employs 30,000 workers but could use 6,000 more people in coming years. John Butts, executive director of the Associated Contractors of Maine, said last week he hears daily from contractors who do not bid on a contract because they lack staff.

“We do our own training based on the demands of the industry,” he said. “We recently worked with displaced workers in the Millinocket area and provided training for some as heavy-equipment operators.”

The industry wants to attract more high school students, he said. The pay and benefits are above the state average and can provide a good career.

He said $20 to $25 an hour with benefits is a good job in Maine. But when high school students were polled about occupations they wanted to work in, construction ranked 248 out of 250 listed.

“Our members are putting their own money into a PR campaign this fall about the jobs available in the industry,” Butts said.

Baldacci said once the work-force cabinet has determined where the jobs and educational opportunities do not match, an effort will be launched to bring the two into line.

“If we are going to compete in the global economy, and we must, we have to change the way we have been doing things to reflect the new economy, “he said.