THE skills gap has become rather pervasive in policy discourse both here in Maine and in the U.S. Despite wage and other data suggesting there isn’t a broad labor/skills shortage, policymakers at the state and federal levels insist that there is, and that this shortage is what is constraining economic and job growth. As a […]
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, […]
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 […]
THE national economy added 204,000 private sector jobs in August, according to ADP’s monthly employment report published this morning. It is the 5th straight month of job gains over 200,000. From Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics: “Steady as she goes in the job market. Businesses continue to hire at a solid pace. Job […]
LITTLE need to rehash much of what I have said about the skills gap (see here, here, here, and here), but a recent article from the Harvard Business Review titled Employers Aren’t Just Whining – the “Skills Gap” Is Real. In this article, James Bessen picks up where other skills gap proponents leave off in their […]
Jared Bernstein has a pretty interesting post up regarding the Beveridge Curve, which in turn has some impact on the skills gap arguments taking place in Maine. Skills gap proponents in Maine like to point to national trends to bolster their argument that the state is suffering from the national trend. On the national level, skills […]
A previous looked at the recently released Quarterly Census Employment Wages data. That data, released by the BLS, breaks down average wages for every county in the country by industry. It’s a useful data point, but some comments I read on-line noted that the average is not the best metric to measure wages, and instead […]
AS noted previously, much has been made in Maine regarding twin structural problems in the state’s labor market and overall economy. The first problem is that Maine’s shifting demographics are causing a labor shortage (or, some will argue, will within the next 6 years). However, the concern over shifting demographics is a bit misplaced; at […]
“The structure of a modern economy does not change that quickly. The demographic composition of the labor force, its educational breakdown and even the industrial mix did not differ much between 2007 and 2009.” –Edward Lazear WHILE doing some research on a post re: the skills gap in Maine, I came across something rather interesting. […]
THERE’S been a substantial amount of discussion about the ‘need’ to increase the number of college graduates in Maine to close the purported skills gap and boost Maine’s economy. In short, the lack of skilled and educated labor in the state is restraining the state’s economy as job opportunities remain unfilled. One might conclude from […]
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