Many of the hotels, inns and restaurants are open seasonally for 4-7 months. The only readily available workforce are teachers, students and ski instructors. The available workers in prior years were temporary visa visitors from western and Central Europe. The US needs to welcome those people again. For full time working Mainers, they need construction jobs and supply-chain professionals since Maine enjoys quicker travel and communication with western Europe.
I've spent a lot of time in Maine, starting in the late Eighties. I've watched it go from a quirky, fiercely independent vibe, where people were perhaps a little on the poor side, but took care of their own lives and communities, to a sad, dispirited welfare state. There was a wholesale embrace of state dependency by their politicians during the last thirty years (Chellie Pingree is their Patron Saint), and now Mainers have become a sad lot--more's the pity, for they enjoy unbelievable natural advantages: the beautiful and varied geography, low density, etc. But everywhere, there is the stifling public sector, even in the tiniest hamlets. When "working for the town" is the highest aspirational career achievement, you've got a BIG problem...
Many of the hotels, inns and restaurants are open seasonally for 4-7 months. The only readily available workforce are teachers, students and ski instructors. The available workers in prior years were temporary visa visitors from western and Central Europe. The US needs to welcome those people again. For full time working Mainers, they need construction jobs and supply-chain professionals since Maine enjoys quicker travel and communication with western Europe.
I've spent a lot of time in Maine, starting in the late Eighties. I've watched it go from a quirky, fiercely independent vibe, where people were perhaps a little on the poor side, but took care of their own lives and communities, to a sad, dispirited welfare state. There was a wholesale embrace of state dependency by their politicians during the last thirty years (Chellie Pingree is their Patron Saint), and now Mainers have become a sad lot--more's the pity, for they enjoy unbelievable natural advantages: the beautiful and varied geography, low density, etc. But everywhere, there is the stifling public sector, even in the tiniest hamlets. When "working for the town" is the highest aspirational career achievement, you've got a BIG problem...