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Kate Fahey is the director of the Peer Workforce Navigator Network. Catherine Buxton is a policy advocate for the network. The Peer Workforce Navigator project is a network of community-based organizations working in partnership with the Maine Department of Labor to connect Mainers to good jobs, public benefits, and education and training. The network launched as a pilot in 2022 as part of the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan.
We’re from a statewide network of community organizations, called the Peer Workforce Navigator Project, who are dedicated to helping workers find economic opportunity through good jobs and education. This Labor Day, we want to bring you some hope about the future of work in Maine.
Nobody understands how uncertain, even scary, our economic future feels better than our Peer Workforce Navigators, who hear their peers’ anxieties each day. Workers are worried about the cost of groceries and health insurance, afraid to lose their job, or that immigrant enforcement might show up at work. And yet the same navigators also hear of big hopes; workers wanting to enroll in school, find a better job, and strive for prosperity for their families.
When we read the headlines about the possibility of AI replacing people’s jobs, we understand two things: The road ahead might be hard, but there are public investments we can make to chart a brighter future for workers.
History gives plenty of proof that when Maine puts resources directly into the hands of people, they drive our economy to new heights. Economists agree the best way to future-proof our economy is to invest in safety net programs like unemployment insurance, paid family medical leave, healthcare, and food security.
These investments help people stay in the workforce. Unemployment insurance gets workers back to work, but it must be modernized before the next crisis comes. While Maine can take steps on its own, like offering more generous benefits or broader eligibility for gig workers, federal lawmakers must step up and support bipartisan legislation like the Unemployment Insurance Modernization and Recession Readiness Act.
Supporting workers’ growth is also essential. In the Great Depression, New Deal programs connected unemployed workers to reliable jobs. Today, Maine’s Bureau of Employment Services, community colleges, and workforce partners continue this legacy through public investments in education and training, like the Maine Apprenticeship Program, which has shown to double participants’ wages just a year after completion.
Maine has many home-grown solutions, like the Build HOPE project that offered flexible cash assistance to student parents for everyday needs, which improved educational outcomes and earnings. The Maine Department of Labor’s Competitive Skills Scholarship Program offers (recently increased) allowances for transportation, child care, and emergency expenses so workers could focus on school or training for in-demand jobs. Continued bipartisan support for programs like these shows that people-forward policies are broadly popular and worthwhile.
Another way to keep people at the heart of Maine’s future economy is to invest in the people who help everyone find work, no matter their background or where they live. Underserved workers like single parents, immigrants, people in recovery, or rural Mainers have unique barriers, and the Peer Workforce Navigator pilot proved that state investments in community-based navigators mitigated those barriers through culturally responsive case management and resource navigation.
Lawmakers must not forget that to administer economic security programs, the state needs its own well-trained and compensated workforce. Valued employees stay in their careers, offering higher quality and continuity of service. Good technology can help, but nothing replaces an investment in the workers who make these programs run.
Finally, the labor movement teaches us that solidarity means when we advocate for one member, we improve conditions for all. While our current federal administration assaults the safety and lives of immigrant workers, we believe our local and state governments must continue to be relentlessly welcoming and committed to building opportunity for all. Of course, immigrants contribute greatly to our economy, but they also bring deep value to our communities that extends far beyond their work.
Maine’s future investments shouldn’t primarily be in data centers or attracting billionaires, but in all of us: the people who call this place home. We must choose leaders, from our local school board to federal representatives, who put people at the center of their economic agenda. Maine’s own Frances Perkins, to whom workers owe so much progress, shared this wisdom: “The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.”
This Labor Day, keep asking your government to make sure that the people who power our economy are the ones who matter most.