CWRI

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented disruptions in the labor market, beginning in March of 2020. From February to April, 104,500 nonfarm jobs were lost, about 16 percent of the statewide total. The 532,800 jobs in April was the lowest monthly total since August of 1994.  Job Impact by Sector Job losses were heavily concentrated in sectors of the economy in which goods and services are delivered in-person and where close contact with customers or coworkers is required. Most job losses in March and April occurred in the leisure and hospitality, health care and social assistance, and retail trade sectors, as well as in educational services, which is spread across local and state government -- public schools, universities and community colleges -- and private schools – both K-12 and higher ed. Those sectors were impacted by a combination of public safety measures and changes in the types of activities that people engaged in as a result of the pandemic.  While most sectors o...

Workforce conditions in Maine were very tight with historically low unemployment in the four-year period through the beginning of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic sent the economy into a steep decline in the spring, and now, in the middle of 2020, the recovery is underway. At this point, it is unclear how long full recovery will take or what all the long-term impacts will be, though there are likely to be many. This forecast covers the period from 2018, the base year, to 2028. It does not include years in between, though we cannot ignore the fact that employment today is well below 2018 levels. It considers some of the longer-term impacts we expect in the aftermath of the pandemic, though the full range of impacts cannot be fully understood at this point. Long Term Employment Growth Context The rate of change in employment in Maine has varied significantly over the last seven decades, with long periods of little change and of rapid growth. In both cases, the number of births was the key fac...

Originally Published May 22, 2020. Updated on June 19, 2020 On Friday June 19, the Center for Workforce Research and Information (CWRI) and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released May workforce estimates for Maine. These include estimates of the unemployment rate and the change in nonfarm payroll jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented job loss in Maine and the nation, though nonfarm payroll jobs began to show signs of recovery in May. The pandemic has created significant data collection and estimation challenges. This document provides information on how these estimates are derived, what some of the challenges were for collection and estimation, and then answers some questions we expect to arise. How this data is collected The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics enters into cooperative agreements with state workforce agencies to collaboratively produce and disseminate workforce data. Two programs, Current Employment Statistics (CES) and Local Area Unemployment Statis...

On Friday May 22, the Center for Workforce Research and Information (CWRI) and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released April workforce estimates for Maine. These include estimates of the unemployment rate and the change in nonfarm payroll jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented job loss in Maine and the nation in the last two months. It also created significant data collection and estimation challenges. This document provides information on how these estimates are derived, what some of the challenges were for collection and estimation, and then answers some questions we expect to arise. How this data is collected The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics enters into cooperative agreements with state workforce agencies to collaboratively produce and disseminate workforce data. Two programs, Current Employment Statistics (CES) and Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), are designed to provide a monthly indication of workforce conditions and trends. Data from those prog...

Annual revisions to monthly workforce estimates for Maine have been published. Based on more complete data, revisions indicate that the unemployment rate and size of the labor force were little changed throughout 2019. The number of nonfarm payroll jobs increased more than previous estimates indicated. Data cited in this brief is seasonally adjusted. Unemployment Rate Preliminary estimates released each month indicated that the unemployment rate was as high as 3.5 percent in the first two months and as low as 2.8 percent in the fall of 2019. Revised rates indicate that the unemployment rate changed little during the year, gradually falling from 3.2 percent in the first two months of the year to 2.9 or 3.0 percent each of the last eight months. Given the size of the survey sample and margins of error in the estimates, there has essentially been no change in the statewide unemployment rate for more than two years. Unemployment has been below 4.0 percent each month since December...

Annual revisions to monthly workforce estimates for Maine have been published. Based on more complete data, revisions indicate that the unemployment rate and size of the labor force were little changed throughout 2018. The number of nonfarm payroll jobs was somewhat higher early in the year and lower later in the year than previous estimates indicated. Data cited in this brief is seasonally adjusted. Unemployment Rate Preliminary estimates released each month indicated that unemployment was as low as 2.7 percent in the spring and as high as 3.4 percent in the last three months of 2018. Revised rates indicate that unemployment changed little during the year, gradually rising from 3.2 percent in the first three months of the year to 3.5 percent in the last five months. Given the size of the survey sample and margins of error in the estimates, there has essentially been no change in the statewide unemployment rate for more than two years. Unemployment has been below 4.0 pe...

Job Outlook to 2026 by Educational Requirement The first blog in our series on the 2016 to 2026 employment outlook focused on how an aging population is expected to constrain job growth . The second focused on how the occupational job structure is expected to continue to gradually shift . Those shifts have implications for the educational requirements of the labor force, which is the focus of this blog. Performance and educational requirements differ from one occupation to another. Some jobs require little experience or education, others extensive experience or education, with a whole range in between. So as the mix of jobs changes, the educational requirements of the labor force also change. Additionally, the requirements to successfully perform the functions of most occupations changes over time as technology and work practices evolve, and other factors impact the way the functions of a job are performed. About 77 percent of jobs in Maine are in occupations that have a ...