CARIBOU, Maine — An Aroostook County economic development partnership is taking a proactive step to get businesses ready for a projected dip in the workforce while spearheading efforts to attract young people to remain in The County and replace those departing workers.
Between 2012 and 2022, 109,000 more aging employees are projected to leave the statewide workforce than are entering it, according to Maine Workforce Outlook 2012-2022, a report from the Maine Department of Labor Center for Workforce Research and Information.
In an effort to address that workforce gap, the Aroostook Partnership for Progress, a regional public-private initiative aimed at enhancing economic growth and development, is sending surveys to 2,800 students in grades nine through 12 in The County and to several hundred businesses in the region.
According to Robert Dorsey, president and CEO of APP, the surveys are focusing on increasing student retainment numbers and attracting them to education and careers in The County. They also are giving them information about careers, job shadowing and internship opportunities available locally.
“We want to know how many youth are coming into the workforce,” Dorsey said Monday. “And in the surveys we have sent out to the business community, we want to know how many employees they have, how many open positions they currently have and how many employees they plan to hire in the next five years.”
Dorsey said the Maine Workforce Outlook report was a big catalyst behind the survey. According to the report, in 2012, the number of residents age 45 to 64 in the state’s labor force of 700,000 numbered 411,000. The majority of that group will be labor force “leavers,” retiring in the next six years. At the same time, 302,000 residents under age 20 will be labor force “entrants,” which is the cause of the 109,000 person gap between the two.
A lack of working-age population growth can significantly impact businesses’ abilities to attract the staff they need to meet demand for their products and services, according to the report.
“That gap between potential labor force leavers and entrants is significant,” Dorsey said. “It gets your attention. We have got to get a better handle on how many jobs will be emerging.”
Dorsey said the surveys also will help businesses think about the future and the employees they may be losing.
Another goal is to get youth thinking early about what kinds of careers they may want to enter and then to educate them about the businesses that are out there in Aroostook County. That will open up the dialogue about job shadowing and internship opportunities.
“Even people who have lived here for decades don’t know a lot about [firearms manufacturer] Smith and Wesson or Louisiana Pacific [building products],” he said. “They don’t know about all of the jobs available in the health care sector up here. We are really pushing that the kids can get a cost effective education here and remain here and work and have a good career.”