HOULTON, Maine — Poverty, insufficient public transportation, lower wages and dwindling job prospects make finding and keeping a job in northern Maine a challenge for many, according to an economic overview presented to the Aroostook County Commissioners on Tuesday.
The County unemployment rate increased this quarter from 3.5% in September 2024 to 3.9% in September 2025, Galen Williamson, executive director of the Northeastern Workforce Development Board, told the commissioners during a Houlton meeting.
Barriers and needs are significantly greater for people in Aroostook County than in other parts of the state: poverty, trouble qualifying for services, the scarcity of public transportation and the challenge around finding good jobs, he said.
According to Williamson, unemployment in The County is higher than the state’s 3% and that of the northeastern region, which includes the upper five counties of Aroostook, Washington, Penobscot, Hancock and Piscataquis, at 3.4%.
There is a disparity between annual wage earnings in rural areas and places like Portland. People living in Aroostook County make about $11,293 a year less than other Mainers and $24,000 less than workers nationwide, he said.
“That’s a pretty significant number,” Williamson said.
Health care and social services continue to be the leading industries In The County, employing about 5,400 people. Retail comes in second, followed by education and manufacturing, according to the report.
The need for workforce services is extensive, but poverty income guidelines, which are very low, make it even harder to help people in the County, said Heidi Rackliffe, chief of programs at the Aroostook County Action Program, during Tuesday’s meeting.
“Individuals have to be making pretty much nothing, so you can imagine the barriers that come with serving individuals in order to maintain and obtain employment,” she said, adding that this is the first year they have exhausted all funding for such services. “That shows the kind of need that is out there for workforce services.”
Additionally, people looking for work may need help with car repairs, clothing or transportation.
The 2025 poverty threshold is $15,650 for a single person, $21,150 for a couple and $26,650 for a family of three, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Oftentimes people within the poverty threshold do not have transportation, so we literally have to find places where people can walk,” Rackliffe said. “Many times we buy bikes for people to pedal to work.”
There are no income guidelines for assisting dislocated workers, and when there are business layoffs, the agency helps workers with job-seeking needs, she said.
“We support those individuals regardless of what their income is,” she said. “At this time we have not had too, too many [business] closures.”
However, Rackliffe pointed out that several childcare centers have closed in The County.
According to the economic report, over the next year, The County is projected to lose an additional 186 jobs from most sectors, with manufacturing losing slightly more jobs than the others.
Mining and oil and gas extraction have a strong forecast for the next year, the report indicated.