Indicator: 60 - Employment

 

Why This Is Important

These figures represent full- and part-time annual average employment, not including farm
workers or self-employed people. This is an indicator of the number of jobs in Maine, unlike
the unemployment rate, which is a measure of how many people are out of work.

While this indicator has limitations and does not address many employment issues, such as
multiple job holdings and the quality of jobs, it does provide a fundamental measure of the
State of Maine’s economy and is widely recognized as such.

 

 

Where We Stand

Maine ’s total employment grew an average of 1.6% annually over the last seven years.
From 2002 to 2003, it grew 0.7 % while employment in New England dropped 1.9%
and national employment grew 0.5%. Most of the job growth has been occurring in the
non-manufacturing sector (including mining, wholesale and retail trade, construction,
services, finance, insurance, real estate, transportation, communications and public utilities).
Non-manufacturing jobs grew an average of 2.5% yearly since 1993, but through November
2003 they grew only 0.9%. Government jobs grew an average of 1.2% annually, but
increased by 4,800 (4.6%) in 2003.

 

Data Sources and Context

Data for this indicator comes from the Maine Economic Growth Council’s Measures of
Growth 2004; summary and analysis of data in that publication is done by the Maine
Development Foundation. For this measure, the Foundation analyzed data from the Maine
Department of Labor, Division of Labor Market Information Services, in cooperation with
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Measures of Growth 2004 is available on-line at http://www.mdf.org/megc .