🔒From York to Fort Kent: ‘We need workers to fill the jobs’

Maine's economy may have finally moved out of the shadow of the recession.

Many companies are growing. Demand for real estate continues to grow and there's ample evidence that the construction industry is benefiting. Food and beer concerns seem to have brought a new dynamic to the economy. And companies are looking for skilled workers.

I say “looking for” because the search has not been completed. One of the dominate things I hear as editor of Mainebiz, whether it's in our “On the Road” roundtables statewide or just in casual conversations, is that companies cannot find the workers they're seeking. It's an ongoing theme.

Maine's economic future rests on more than creating jobs. We need workers to fill the jobs.

In our “Five on the Future” feature, a yearly staple at Mainebiz, state economist Amanda Rector says southern Maine's economy has seen the strongest growth and farming, aquaculture, food production, restaurants and beverages are shining. She also cites the need for a “multi-faceted approach” to address the workforce needs. Charles Lawton, chief economist at Planning Decisions Inc., says even shrinking industries like paper products won't have enough workers to replace those that are retiring.

In our focus section on commercial development, building contractors say the labor shortage is so acute it sometimes prevents them from taking on additional projects. On the plus side, the shortage has forced contractors to come up with more efficient ways of building projects — building more pre-fab sections, doing more work offsite and joining forces with other contractors.

The issue is twofold: Maine's workers keep getting older and we have fewer and fewer young people coming out of high schools.

Solutions offered by our “Five on the Future” respondents varied widely. Rector suggests including making Maine more competitive by offering more competitive tax policy, lower energy costs and infrastructure improvements; if people know they can find well-paying jobs, they'll move here. Others cited the need to open the door to immigrants, whether they're from other countries, or from congested cities like Washington, New York or Boston. Lawton also said much of our potential workforce — males ages 25 to 55 — have, for whatever reason, taken themselves out of the workforce.

We need to create jobs, yes, but also need to provide additional incentives to move to Maine — or move back into the workforce.

Heard on Main Street

Ramblers Way, a Kennebunk-based apparel company launched in 2007 by Tom's of Maine founder Tom Chappell, has grown far beyond its mail-order roots. In recent weeks it opened a retail store at 37 S. Main St. in Hanover, N.H. Other stores are planned for Portsmouth, N.H., and, later this year, Portland; Cambridge, Mass.; and West Hartford, Conn. Ramblers Way sells ethically sourced, sustainably produced men's and women's clothing made from Pima cotton and Merino wool … In the fall, Laurie Schreiber reported in Mainebiz's Real Estate Insider that Moody's Auto Body had acquired the former racetrack site in Gorham, paying $1.2 million. At the end of December, Shawn Moody, the founder of the company, unveiled a plan to develop an incubator space on the site. The Cooperative Workplace Campus will serve as an incubator for startups. Since Maine already has an abundance of startups and even incubator spaces, it seemed like the more significant part of his announcement was that Moody's will help with financing solutions, including capital, land leases and build-to-suit options. Now we're talking.