It’s difficult to keep good news to yourself and, when you’re the governor and it’s an election year, keeping quiet is just about impossible. No surprise then that Gov. Angus King’s office last week was sending out notices on Maine’s falling unemployment rate.

Too bad there’s not much to celebrate.

True, the unemployment rate is very low in Maine. A county-by-county survey shows the rate is down all over the state, and is so low that some tourist areas can’t find enough applicants to fill summer jobs. In a comparison between May 1997 and May ’98, Aroostook’s unemployment rate dropped from 11 percent to 7.2 percent. Washington’s went from 11.2 to 9.1. Penobscot looked a bit like its neighbors to the south when its rate went from 6.2 percent to 3.9. The overall state average fell from 5.4 to 3.7 percent. So why isn’t everyone having a party?

Perhaps because they can’t afford to. Even as Maine’s unemployment rate dropped to tiny levels, its per capita income rank was also falling, from near the middle of the pack to 37th among states. More Maine people are working but, compared with workers in other states at least, they’re earning less.

Economists probably have a simple explanation for why Maine can have simultaneously a near shortage of workers and depressed wages. Or maybe they have a complicated explanation. Maybe its Nafta’s fault. It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is whether the state is going to continue to sell itself as a low-wage, low-skill place for telemarketing jobs or whether it is going to capture some of the high-growth, high-tech industries that currently are going elsewhere.

This is essential in the Bangor region and north, where predictions for population and economic growth are dismal. Incrementalism isn’t going to work; the crumbs of legislative leftovers won’t feed the demand for good jobs with livable wages. Vigorous support for higher education and associated research and development, infrastructure that is an attraction rather than something to apologize for, a renewed willingness from state government to help small businesses are all part of the needed changes.

The Maine Development Foundation recently reported that more than 18 percent of wage-earners in Maine fail to bring home a livable wage, defined at $18,376 for a family of two. Think of it. Thousands of Maine people get up each day and go to work, work hard all day, get their paychecks at the end of the week and — guess what? — they can’t pay the rent with that money (ITAL)and(UNITAL) buy groceries.

The unemployment rate is down and a lot of Mainers are just happy to have any job at all, so they aren’t complaining about wages or chances for advancement or how their pay compares with pay for similar work in other states. Good news in any amount is welcome. Just don’t expect workers to throw a party because of it.