In-Depth: Maine's labor shortage

PORTLAND (WGME) – Businesses across Maine are dealing with the same problem, they can't find workers to do the job.

Maine State Economist Amanda Rector says Maine's labor shortage is reaching a critical level, and it's only expected to get worse.

“We have what I call the “warm bodies problem,” Rector said. “We simply do not have enough people to back fill as the baby boomers move into their retirement years.”

According to the Department of Labor, thousands of Maine's baby boomers will retire over the next decade, and since Maine has more deaths than births, Maine's workforce will shrink by a third if nothing is done.

“We also need to make sure we address this mismatch between people who don't have the right skills for the jobs that need filling,” Rector said.

According to Rector there are people out there who can work, but aren't trained to do the job. They also might not be in the right place.

“We also, in many cases, have a sort of geographic mismatch where there are people in different parts of the state where there aren't many job openings, or there aren't many job openings in the fields they have skills,” Rector said.