AUGUSTA – Maria Nichols of Union is frustrated. She has exhausted her unemployment benefits and the slow recovery from the recession that economists describe is not apparent to her.

“My benefits ran out in April,” she said last week. “And I have been looking for work. I don’t want another manufacturing job; this is the second one I have lost. I really want a career, not just a job.”

The 41-year-old mother of two lost her job at Nautica in Rockland a year ago when that plant shut down. In the 1990s, she lost a manufacturing job at National Sea Products, also in Rockland. Since April she and her self-employed husband have been “scraping by” with the help of family and friends, she said.

Nichols is just one of thousands of Mainers who have exhausted their unemployment benefits.

By November, over 10,000 of the 12,0000 Mainers now receiving benefits will exhaust benefits. In June, 660,000 Mainers were working and an estimated 30,700 were unemployed.

“We do not have any good estimates of the total number that have used all of their benefits because they are no longer in our system,” said Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman in a recent interview. “I think we have to get a handle on how many people we are talking about and more importantly, find a way to help them.”

Fortman said she had discussed with Department staff ways to track individuals after they have exhausted unemployment benefits and how to provide some “meaningful” help in their continued job search.

Rep. Theodore Heidrich, R-Oxford, who serves on the Legislature’s Labor Committee, said it is not enough to simply adopt an outreach program.

“I am really concerned that what we need to be doing is creating more jobs in this state,” he said. “I will give credit to Governor Baldacci that he is trying to do that, as did Governor King. But, I am not sure the Legislature is doing all it can to help businesses create new jobs.”

Heidrich believes too many state policies discourage businesses with excessive rules and regulations. He also said the high tax burden in the state is holding down expansion efforts.

by many businesses.