Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

Poll results

Sponsored by: OTELCO

While Maine's progress in combating COVID-19 has allowed businesses to reopen, finding workers to keep them open is another matter.

In the hospitality field, in the forest products industry, and in many other sectors, the state faces a potentially crippling labor shortage. Growing Maine's workforce has never been easy, but the challenges today are particularly tough.

Labor shortages are affecting other parts of the country as well. There's a wide variety of explanations for the hiring crunch. If your theory isn't described below, please share it in a comment.

(This survey has been gratefully adapted from one published in a Mainebiz sister publication, the Worcester Business Journal.)

What's the No. 1 reason for the lack of qualified workers to fill the labor shortage in Maine?
The ongoing danger of COVID-19 still makes Mainers wary of returning to work. (4%, 19 VOTES)
The pandemic has forced Mainers to leave the state's workforce — for example, by moving or retiring. (3%, 16 VOTES)
New unemployment benefits created as emergency relief are a disincentive for workers to work. (66%, 354 VOTES)
The federal government hasn't granted enough visas for foreign workers to fill their usual seasonal jobs. (11%, 57 VOTES)
Maine doesn't offer enough education and training for new workers. (5%, 26 VOTES)
The lack of affordable child care in Maine is growing worse. (12%, 62 VOTES)
Poll Description

Sponsored by: OTELCO

While Maine's progress in combating COVID-19 has allowed businesses to reopen, finding workers to keep them open is another matter.

In the hospitality field, in the forest products industry, and in many other sectors, the state faces a potentially crippling labor shortage. Growing Maine's workforce has never been easy, but the challenges today are particularly tough.

Labor shortages are affecting other parts of the country as well. There's a wide variety of explanations for the hiring crunch. If your theory isn't described below, please share it in a comment.

(This survey has been gratefully adapted from one published in a Mainebiz sister publication, the Worcester Business Journal.)

  • 534 Votes
  • 14 Comments
View recent polls

Sign up for Enews

14 Comments

  • June 1, 2021

    Additionally displaced workers with time to reassess and reflect have a new sense of work/life balance, recognizing disproportionate wages to inflation.

  • June 1, 2021

    I’d say the lack of positions providing a living wage is probably the #1 reason for the labor shortage. You want qualified employees working for you? Pay them enough to live with dignity. I know I’m not the only one willing to pay a couple extra bucks per menu item if it means my server doesn’t have to live in poverty.

  • June 1, 2021

    Too many positions are part time without benefits.

  • June 1, 2021

    Maine was facing a workforce shortage before Covid caused by our aging population