FARMINGTON — The job market in Maine is slowly recovering and some employers are saying they have jobs but not enough prospective employees skilled in science, technology, engineering and math, an economist and labor expert told more than 80 educators, guidance counselors and business people at the University of Maine on Monday.

The forum was the first meeting of the new Maine Futures Institute, a collaboration between the university, the Maine Department of Labor’s Workforce Research and Information office, the business community and educators.

What makes this new venture unique is that it is being driven by the most up-to-date demographic data being collected by the Labor Department with the aim to use it to help high school students navigate the new labor market and make better informed career decisions.

The state’s labor information office now can more accurately track jobs, including those listed on Internet sites. It can better study the work force, see who is being hired by age, sex, education and skills, and can more accurately forecast the needs of employers in the future, said keynote speaker John Dorrer, the former director of the Workforce Research Team at the Maine Department of Labor.

He is now a program director at Jobs for the Future, a national organization that develops, implements and promotes new education and work force methods that help states compete globally. His in-depth presentation Monday included a history of the employment picture in Maine since the economic downturn started in 2008 as well as projections for the future.

“There is hiring activity going on,” he said. “But the jobs we lost (in the recession) don’t match up to the jobs we are gaining.”

“Will we have enough people to fill jobs for engineers, in computer science, accountants, economics and finance? These need skills and proficiency and an ability to perform jobs at a high level. And they pay well,” he said.

In Maine, “STEM” jobs, or those in science, technical, engineering and math, are growing faster than all other occupations, he said.

Currently, the segment of the labor market doing most of those skilled jobs is between 45 and 54 years old. According to labor forecasts, there will be a strong exodus from those jobs over the next 10 years.

“Can Maine meet these demands?” he asked.

By 2018, 59 percent of the jobs in Maine will require post-secondary education, he said. That demand could reverse if the state does not have an adequate supply of skilled workers, he said.

“What can we do about it?” Dorrer asked. “The future is not something that happens. It is something we create. Our obligation is to instigate change at this level.”

He said if Maine is to ever achieve a robust economy again, something needs to be done to keep young people from moving out of state for better jobs.

That sentiment was voiced during a comment session by a student from Telstar High School in Bethel who was invited to attend the forum.

“I am concerned about not finding anything to attract me enough to stay in Maine. I want to work and earn the most I can,” sophomore Colton Davis said.

“It is a myth that there are no jobs in Maine,” university President Theodora Kalikow said.

“We have to change the story that you have to leave Maine to get ahead. There are jobs in Maine and some jobs are hard to fill,” she said.

“We are educating people for jobs that have not been invented yet,” she said. “We have to focus on creatively, inventiveness, flexibility and entrepreneurial skills.”

According to Institutes’s position paper, “Lack of attention to providing our future work force with the critical information and resources they need to need to meet the needs of Maine employers could have grave consequences.”

“Addressing this situation requires greater alignment between our educational system and the labor market,” it states.

During a brainstorming session, Patrick Phillips, superintendent of the Bridgton area school system, suggested creating profiles of successful businesses that drive the economy, what jobs they offer, and what skills they need so students can better imagine what working there would be like.

Guidance counselor Susan LaGasse from Erskine Academy in South China said one problem is that young people interested in health care can’t get into college because of long waiting lists.

Janet Jones, a counselor at Lewiston High School, said with budget cuts, schools cannot provide career education or courses such as economics.

“You have two or three counselors with hundreds of kids. This cannot solve the problem of getting the information to the students,” she said.

During a break, Leanne Condon, the Mt. Blue Regional School District’s director of curriculum, said she supported the forum’s concept.

“It is excellent with a lot of great information I was not aware of,” she said.

One of the forum’s organizers, Sheena Bunnell, UMF professor of business economics and director of the Maine Health Research Institute, said after the afternoon wrap-up session that participants want to continue the discussion and next time to invite nonprofits, businesses and policy makers.

“They are very committed and passionate and want to find a solution to the problem,” she said. “They want to know what we can do, how we can do it, and by when.”

“I believe every problem can be solved and the solution will come from the people. We are there to help make it happen.”

“We all want to keep Maine kids in Maine but we need a well-educated work force and we need to invest in our human capital,” she said.