More people concerned about economy, despite war news
Publishers of a poll released Tuesday expected a brighter outlook for Maine’s economy, as major combat in Iraq has ended.
The results showed just the opposite.
“I was surprised,” said Patrick Murphy, president of Strategic Marketing Services, which released its 26th Quarterly Omnibus Poll, conducted April 24 through 28. “People have tended to become more pessimistic.”
When asked about the economy, 48 percent of poll respondents said it is generally headed in the wrong direction. Forty percent believe it is headed in the right direction, while 13 percent are unsure. Compared to the survey in January, there was an 8 percent jump among the pessimists and a 6 percent drop among optimists.
Also released on Tuesday were the state’s latest labor figures. The seasonally adjusted March unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, down slightly from February, but up from 4.3 percent a year ago. The national rate for March was 5.8 percent.
Unemployment in Androscoggin County, not seasonally adjusted, held at 5.1 percent, Franklin County edged slightly up to 5.3 percent and Oxford County dropped slightly to 6.2 percent.
For the Lewiston-Auburn metropolitan area, the rate stood at 4.8 percent, down one-tenth of a point from February.
“There’s not much of a change. We peaked in 2000, and we’ve been flat for the past year and a half,” said Gerry Dennison, western Maine analyst for the Maine Department of Labor. “The good news is we’re better than the state and nation.”
Murphy, of the Portland-based SMS, said residents want to actually see new industrial investments and more jobs before changing their attitudes.
“Maybe if we were out in California, people would expect things to turn around next week,” he said. “We tend to be more practical.”
People in northern and central Maine are far more likely to have concerns about economic conditions than their southern neighbors. Respondents also showed heightened concern about jobs.
Sixteen percent feel their jobs are less secure than six months ago – up from 8 percent in the April 2002 poll. Fifteen percent reported greater job security, and 48 percent said the level of job security had not changed in six months. The other respondents were either retired, disabled or unemployed.
“A lot of the tension in Maine has to do with the jobs,” Murphy said, noting several high-profile closures, such as Great Northern Paper, and layoffs, such as at L.L. Bean, which have been stalwarts of business for more than a century. The manufacturing sector continues its long, staggered decline.
That sector recorded the largest job loss since March of 2002, state records show, with declines in paper, wood products and computer and electronic products.
“We have not had very good news this year,” he said. “The real significant thing is that we have two economies going on, a reasonably prosperous southern region and harder times in the central and northern regions.”
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