Morning Sentinel, December 1, 2006
Editorial: Let's stop the handwringing
These are phrases we hear a lot: Maine has no jobs for its young.
We're losing our future.
Our economy doesn't have anything to offer for workers just starting out.
Like all generalizations, these overstate the case.
The image of job prospects in Maine as a one-way street heading south to richer hunting grounds has dominated public discussion in the state for years. It reached a fever pitch during the recent election campaign. Those who wanted to see a change in administration said our economy was in terrible shape, while those who wanted to see John Baldacci re-elected governor maintained the state offered adequate economic opportunity.
The reality, as usual, falls somewhat in the middle of the overheated debate.
A recent survey of University of Maine graduates from the class of 2005 shows that nearly 74 percent of those who responded have full-time jobs and nearly two-thirds of those workers are in Maine. That's good news that undermines the handwringing; the sky isn't quite falling. A large percentage of graduates who have the skills and abilities that enabled them to obtain a University of Maine diploma appear to be in pretty good shape if they want to work in the state.
But not every young person looking for a job is a University of Maine graduate. And that's where figures from the recent study by the Governor's Community College Advisory Council should provoke serious thought.
That study concluded that Maine actually has a shortage of skilled workers in virtually every major industry. In 2006, for example, the council estimates that 4,200 skilled jobs will go unfilled. Those are jobs in health care, manufacturing, business, construction, education, security, transportation, culinary arts and mechanics. The average wage for those jobs is $32,000.
So on the one hand, we've got enough jobs to keep a sizeable proportion of University of Maine graduates employed in the state, while we have thousands of jobs for skilled workers going begging this year. Does this sound like a state that can't hold on to its young?
Yes and no.
What we are is a state that can't educate enough of its young in the ways that will help them get the jobs that are going begging -- that's one of the major reasons our young workers head out of state.
On the other hand, many who can pull it off are choosing an alternative that can keep them in the state. That's evidenced in the phenomenal, 48 percent growth of the community college system over the past few years, which has chosen as a primary mission the education and training of students to take skilled jobs directly out of the two-year program, or continue on for a four-year college degree.
Those 4,200 unfilled jobs of today are ample evidence in support of the community college's plea for more funds to accommodate more students. It's also evidence that our attempts to lure new businesses and industries to Maine for the sake of the jobs they offer should perhaps take a back seat to helping those industries already here fill the jobs they have.
And let's be realistic. Maine is, by and large, the kind of state you settle in to raise your children. Or to which you retire. Young people want lots of cultural amenities. They want art, they want edginess, they want 16 different kinds of coffee and jazz and hip hop and cool places to hang out. They can get a fair amount of that around Portland, but those are urban amenities and this is a mostly rural state.
Some of those young people do want beautiful places to hike, hunt, ski, sail and paddle, and those are likely the ones to find Maine alluring at an earlier stage in their careers. But it's the rare college graduate who emerges from the commencement ceremony with a burning desire to settle in North Dakota, Arkansas or Maine.
Finally, we've said before and it bears repeating: There is nothing wrong in our young people choosing to leave the state to get the experience of the larger world. A "Fortress Maine" mentality is provincial and constitutes the evil twin of the philosophy that no one "from away" should tell us what to do. Keeping our kids in Maine does little to enrich the outside world with what we have to offer, nor does it bring what the world outside of Maine has to offer back to us.
So this brain drain we've heard so much about? It's true that a significant number of Maine's young are leaving here ... some of them for good reasons, some of them because they haven't gotten the education they need to be able to work in the state and some because they can't find the jobs they want, despite having the education to qualify for them. Let's congratulate those who want to leave, give them a nice going-away party and tell them -- as Garrison Keillor says -- to be well, do good work and keep in touch (so they'll come home when they're ready). And let's give those who remain the education they deserve.