AS noted here previously, there is no evidence of a skills gap in Maine. Wages are not accelerating in STEM fields, Maine’s workforce is more educated now than it is has ever been. A new report from the Boston Fed comports with the wage and labor market indicators that demand for labor in Maine is low.* The report […]
IN doing some research for my piece on the weaknesses masked by Maine’s unemployment rate (UER), I noticed two interesting things about the UER. These two things should be kept in mind during the current campaign season. The state’s economy is certainly one of the central issues in the campaign season, and with that candidates […]
ACCORDING to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford area was the only metro area to outpace the state in job growth over the past year. From the report: Unemployment rates were lower in August than a year earlier in 322 of the 373 metropolitan areas, higher in 44 […]
FROM an op-ed titled A promise to grow jobs, shrink government that no Maine politician is making, authored by Allison Mitchell and published in this morning’s BDN: In just a month, America votes. Here in Maine, I’ll be looking for candidates smart and bold enough to call for investment in Maine’s future. As a parent, […]
THE Bureau of Economic Analysis released State Quarterly Personal Income figures for the second quarter of this year. Maine’s personal income grew from the first quarter to the second of this year by 1.5%, with net earnings* (0.8 percentage points), dividends, interest, and rents (0.3 pp), and transfer receipts** (0.4 pp) making up that increase. […]
THERE’S been much debate about the state’s economy and labor market. While both continue to improve following the depths of the recession, some have suggested that the labor market is struggling as evidenced by the state’s slow growth rates relative to the rest of the nation. However, this argument is flawed because the state-to-state or […]
From the Philadelphia Fed: The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released the coincident indexes for the 50 states for Augsut 2014. In the past month, the indexes increased in 39 states, decreased in six, and remained stable in five, for a one-month diffusion index of 72. Over the past three months, the indexes increased in 47 states, […]
AS reported by the LA Times, a four state bidding war for Tesla’s battery plant was finally settled earlier this month, with Nevada ‘winning’ the bid. In exchange for the electric car maker’s roughly 6,500 jobs, Nevada’s bid included: Tesla will get more than $1.25 billion in tax breaks and other incentives. That includes up […]
FROM the BLS: Regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changed in August. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate increases from July, 15 states had decreases, and 11 states had no change . . . In Maine, the UER ticked up 0.1 percentage points to 5.6% from last month, but […]
FROM a recent BDN piece (my emphasis): UMaine President Sue Hunter, who was appointed in June, spoke recently with the Bangor Daily News about her goals, the challenges the university faces and the role the university should play in the state’s economic future. . . . A part of it is when you look at educational attainment […]
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