Study: Maine slipping as work changes

AUGUSTA – Maine does not have enough workers with the skills needed for the state’s emerging economy and is not providing the training and educational opportunities needed to fill jobs that are available today, according to a study given to a legislative panel last week.

“There are tremendous changes under way in the work force,” said John Dorrer, director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information in the Maine Department of Labor, “and they are going to continue.”

He said technology has fundamentally changed the way all jobs in the state are done from the way they were done a decade ago and is continuing to change the nature of the workplace. He told the Legislature’s Study Commission on Post Secondary Access that technological changes are the most significant of the four factors affecting Maine’s workers. The others are foreign competition, demographics and worker expectations in the workplace.

“Too often in the workplace we have managers that are clinging to 30- or 40-year-old rigid traditions and are not understanding the values of their younger workers,” he said. “There needs to be more flexibility.”

Dorrer told the panel that overall unemployment in Maine has been stable for several years, but different regions are seeing very different employment markets. He said the southernmost counties, which include the coastal counties as far north as Waldo County, have jobs going unfilled with a tight labor market.

“Places like Washington County and Millinocket, the unemployment is severe and they have suffered serious economic demise,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, co-chairs the study committee. She said schools and training opportunities after high school need to be better coordinated.

“We need to work at the connection between real jobs and real people,” she said. “People need to want to go on and we have to help them understand what they are missing if they don’t.”

Dorrer said there are jobs, many of them paying well and with benefits, going unfilled today. He said 28 percent of the nursing positions in the state were unfilled in the last DOL survey. He said the fabricated metals industry has been hiring an additional 500 to 600 people every three months and cannot find enough skilled workers to fill the demand.

“We are leaving opportunity for the Maine economy to grow on the table because of not having the kind of work force that we need,” he said.

Many changes are under way in the workplace, he said. For example, the size of employers in the state has changed dramatically in the last decade. There are now only 53 employers in Maine with more than 500 workers. He said most jobs are being created by small businesses and that means a worker needs more sets of skills than in the past.

“You have fewer vice presidents for personnel,” he said. “What is needed is managers with more skills so they can keep the books and manage the technology needs, handle personnel issues, and do whatever else is needed.”

Dorrer said some employers are adapting to the changing demographics of more older workers, who often want flexibility in the hours they work, noting Maine is “graying” faster than most states. He said employers such as Borders Books and Home Depot are providing not only flexibility with hours, but also location. He said workers are spending part of the year employed at a Maine store and then transferring to a store located in a different state during the winter.

“Any employer that does not become more flexible will be in trouble as we get more older workers,” he said. “Some people will want to keep working or will have to keep working and they will be needed.”

Research has revealed a troubling statistic for developing the skilled work force Maine needs, he said. The percentage of young adults, 18 to 24, who are not in school and are not working is 18 percent, higher than the 15 percent identified in national studies. He said that at a time when there is a growing need for workers in many areas, the statistic is troubling.

Rep. Jayne Giles, R-Belfast, a member of the study group, agreed. She said it points to a group the commission should target.

“If we can get more of these into higher-education programs, it seems to me we can lower the number of kids in poverty,” she said.

Giles said she also was concerned at the number of children being raised by a single parent. She said skills that will lead to a well-paying job with benefits would help the individuals involved, their children and the state’s economy.

The committee found there are a number of programs to provide training and educational opportunity supported by the state. They range from traditional colleges and universities to specialized training programs for specific trades, and they are concerned how access to all of them is being coordinated to benefit individual workers.

The panel is charged with recommending how best to assure Maine workers have access to the training and educational opportunities they need and must make its recommendations by the January session of the Legislature.