AUGUSTA, Maine — A new report from the Maine Center for Economic Policy comes with a warning: Maine's workforce is plateauing, and now is the time to address this growing problem.
James Myall is an economic policy analyst with MECEP. He's also the author of the "State of Working Maine 2023" report, which took about six months to complete. It's an annual endeavor, designed to analyze the state of Maine's economy and its workers.
Myall said in 2023, the primary concern is the flatlining and shrinking of the workforce in Maine.
“We know that Maine is going to need more workers in order to keep some essential services going," Myall said.
Those essential services include things like care for children and older Mainers, education (especially bus driving and education technician work), and the service industry, according to Myall. He said age has a role in this issue.
"Maine has the oldest population of any state, and that’s sort of playing an effect," Myall said. "Each year, we tend to have more people retiring than we have folks entering the workforce."
Myall said this problem has been a long time in the making, as affordable housing has become harder and harder to find. He said he wants Maine's policymakers to increase the housing supply and make it easier to transfer work credentials between states. He said he also wants to encourage diverse people from out of state to move here.
"What we see in the data is that there’s a certain group of folks that are moving here. They tend to come from a limited number of states, and they tend to be mostly folk from white communities," Myall said.
This report utilized interviews with 12 different Mainers from varying backgrounds to put stories to statistics. One of those people was a 31-year-old man named Armando. He's originally from Angola and has been in Maine for seven months.
Armando calls Maine his "mother" in a country where freedom is a right.
“I will give to my mother because my mother gives me everything," Armando said about his goals. He has been frustrated, though, because he still has not been able to receive a work permit.
"With money, you can buy bread; you can buy clothes; you can support your family; and you can pay the taxes—it’s very important," Armando said.
Armando said he wants to stay in Maine forever and has a dream of working either at a bank or as a lawyer. He said the process of getting started professionally, though, has taken too long.
"You’re doing nothing," Armando said about life while not having a work permit.
Kim, an education technician in Oxford County, was another person interviewed for this report. She's in a different situation, having worked in the same district for almost 21 years and only make $19.83 per hour.
“I want people to know that we’re underpaid," Kim said, regarding why she took part in this report.
Kim said she has stayed in her work because she loves her job and the people she works with, and back when she started, the pay didn't seem as unreasonable. Now, though, she said it's almost impossible for education technicians and teachers to keep up with the cost of inflation.
"I’m fortunate that I’m married; my kids are out of the house; my mortgage is paid—but not everybody’s in that boat," Kim said.
She said this is a problem in districts other than her own, too, and is worried nothing will change after fighting unsuccessfully for better pay in Augusta.
"If you don’t raise our pay, you’re not going to have anybody to educate these kids—and these kids are our future," Kim said.
You can read MECEP's full report here.