Portland program pairs employers with general assistance job seekers
Portland’s Helping Individuals Regain Employment program, administered by the Social Services division of the city’s Health and Human Services Department, has seen early success in its push to create employment opportunities for general assistance recipients, The Forecaster reported.
With city unemployment at 2.8%, local businesses are facing staffing problems, city spokesperson Jessica Grondin told the paper. The HIRE program helps address labor shortages.
“We are talking about a population that is overwhelmingly educated and motivated to work,” Councilor Ed Suslovic said.
According to the city’s website, the program identifies employment barriers and generates a pool of qualified applicants for local businesses to fill their staffing needs.
The program works to address the business community’s need by eliminating the common barriers to employment, including low-English proficiency, foreign and unrecognized credentials, lack of a resume or U.S. work history or a disability. The program began with a focus on the non-citizen general assistance population, and had such a good response in enrolling participants that it expanded for all general assistance recipients.
Since Jan. 1, the program has enrolled 54 new clients. Employers hiring from the HIRE applicant pool include Granite Bay Care, Bayside Nursing Home, Express Transportation, HW Staffing and Avesta Housing.
The difficulties faced by Portland employers in finding labor is mirrored statewide.
"It's difficult to get and keep talented people," economist Jim Damicis, senior vice president with Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based Camoin Associates, a consulting firm with offices in Portland, told Mainebiz last year. "Every time we talk to a company about what's impacting their growth and ability to stay here and expand, it's always, always, always, labor."
The difficulty, in part, is driven by demographics. Maine's median age of 43.5 years is the highest in the nation. Portland's vital stats are slightly sunnier, with an average age of 36.7 and 44.8% of the adult population with bachelor's degrees or higher. The swell of baby boomers reaching retirement age, low birth-rates and low rates of migration into the state are creating a dearth of workers to meet local businesses' needs.
Yet local businesses are growing — especially in greater Portland. Employers like Apothecary by Design, Winxnet, Kepware Technologies, Unum and Envirologix are experiencing rapid growth and working feverishly to recruit the employees they need to support that growth.
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