Gov. Janet Mills urged business leaders and community organizers Monday to build on the progress that has brought more than 13,000 new workers to Maine within the last three years.
Maine ranked ninth in the nation for net in-migration last year, primarily driven by people moving from other states. Maine was also one of seven states to see positive international migration to all of its counties, Mills said.
She said it’s no longer safe to assume that young people will leave Maine looking for better opportunities.
“Now that is turning around. That phenomena is turning around,” Mills said Monday during an event with the Maine International Trade Center and the World Affairs Council of Maine in Portland. “And it is because we offer great education here in Maine, two years [of] free community college [for] recent high school grads. It’s because we offer a great sense of place, a sense of community, a sense of safety.”
But Mills acknowledged the labor growth is still well short of a state’s goal of adding 75,000 new workers by the end of this decade.
“We’re getting there. It’s good news,” she said. “But we know that our economic growth is continuing to outpace the number of people who are available to work in Maine. We need every person who’s able to work in Maine, to be able to support themselves.”
She said the state needs to invest in more housing, broadband and child care options to help working-age people stay in Maine for the long term. And she said the federal government must shorten the waiting period for asylum seekers to become eligible for work permits.
Much of Maine’s congressional delegation has tried multiple times to pass legislation that would allow asylum seekers to begin working sooner, or secure a waiver to grant an exception to asylum seekers in Maine. But the multiple attempts have so far been unsuccessful.
In the meantime, Mills said the state is trying to think of new ways to promote Maine as a destination for working teachers.
The first year of an advertising campaign meant to attract out-of-state teachers to Maine generated about 2,000 applicants.
“We’ve been advertising on subways in major cities like New York City with mobile billboards and teacher-specific ads on college campuses,” Mills said. “I hear from governors of other states saying, ‘Stop advertising in my state. Get those signs off our subways, off our buses and trains.’”
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
