MDF report cites improved energy and business costs; lagging GDP
An annual economic growth survey found Maine made the strongest progress in protecting the environment, and while most of the survey’s measures did not move significantly in relation to its established goals, the state improved on a range of economic metrics.
The Maine Development Foundation’s 2014 Measures of Growth report deemed significant the state’s improvements in math and reading scores, along with other bright spots like increasing sustainable forest lands, improving air and water quality, reducing the cost of energy and the cost of doing business. The state lost ground against MDF’s benchmarks for reducing poverty, improving transportation infrastructure and increasing real gross domestic product and the number of high-speed Internet subscribers in relation to the region.
The study’s view of progress is based on earlier benchmarks, often expressed in relation to previous years or regional and national trends, and each metric may look at different time periods, as the most recently available economic data varies.
The analysis shows a mixture of good and bad news within the details of each metric. For example, while Maine fell short of MDF’s goal for growth in real gross domestic product to outpace New England and the U.S. rates, the state’s GDP grew 0.5% from 2011 to 2012 after falling 0.4% one year earlier. From 2011 to 2012, GDP grew 1.2% in New England and 2.5% nationwide.
On jobs, the report found the state made roughly no movement toward its benchmark of increasing the total number of jobs each year. The state added 3,600 jobs in 2013, up from 3,400 additional jobs in 2012. Loss of nearly 1,000 government jobs in 2013 was offset by private sector growth, primarily in professional and business services and leisure and hospitality.
The report found that Maine improved on the cost of doing business, based on an index from Moody’s Analytics, but also remained behind national counts of productivity per worker. This year’s study put a new focus on the state’s work force, adding a goal of boosting the state’s work force from 709,000 in 2013 to 771,000 by 2020. The report also added a measure of food insecurity, calling for the percentage of households without consistent access to healthful food to decrease from nearly 15% in Maine to the 2012 New England average of 13% by 2020.
The report found poverty rates in Maine have increased alongside national and regional trends, from 2000 to 2012, with the percentage of people living below the poverty line increasing in 11 counties and decreasing in four from 2011 to 2012. Knox County’s rate remained flat.
Some categories, like international exports and the cost of health care, were given no grade this year for a lack of reliable or recent data.
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