Employment and business experts agree there is a workforce shortage in the area — mostly caused from a disconnect between who’s looking for employment and the skills needed for the jobs available.

At a recent meeting at Community Concepts in Paris, Zakk Maher and Kevin Smart of Community Concepts Finance Corp. met with Diane Peet of Western Maine Community Action and Patti Gray of the Lewiston CareerCenter — which also serves Oxford and Franklin counties — to try to find solutions to the problem.

One problem is geographical, Gray said.

“The demand is displaced,” she said. “Where there (are) a lot of unemployed job seekers, there aren’t a lot of jobs. But in the bigger metropolitan areas, there is a lot of business, so they’re looking for employees, but everyone’s got a job.”

A barrier for some people in western Maine is transportation or a willingness to make the commute to the cities, along with housing.

“I live in Hebron, I live in Sugarloaf, wherever,” Peet said people tell her. “I don’t want to travel.”

Gray said some residents of Oxford County are willing to travel to Lewiston-Auburn for work, while others are not.

Even with the unemployment rate for November remaining flat from October at 4 percent for the state, the people who make up this group usually have the most barriers standing in their way for employment, according to Peet. Barriers include disabilities, child care, lack of skills and criminal backgrounds.

“When you’re looking at this kind of unemployment rate, you’re dealing with the most in need, the most challenged,” she said.

Peet sees this weekly at the Norway Memorial Library, where she is available on Mondays and Wednesdays to help people find jobs, create resumes and navigate the state’s job bank portal.

“These people need such basic, beginning, hands-on, one-on-one training that that’s not even what (Adult Education) is able to do,” she said. “I can’t even tell you how many times they’ve come in and said, ‘I don’t know how to turn on (a computer).’”

Complicating the problem is staff shortage at Western Maine Community Action and the state CareerCenters. 

Maher suggested having young people train older folks at these facilities on how to use computers and in return receive volunteer hours for their resumes. 

Help wanted

Jason Shiers, owner of Pleasant Hill Property Services, said his company “has been growing strong every year and (2016) is our biggest year yet.”

However, 2016 also was one of the most difficult in finding and maintaining qualified employees, he said.

Starting pay at the small Norway business begins at $15 an hour and can range from $20 to $25 an hour for those with the right skills. 

“We’re trying to explore options to garner skilled individuals to become members of a pretty high-end landscaping company that does work that is exciting, fun and top-notch,” he said. The company creates natural stone patios, walls and outdoor living areas, among other services.

“It’s been hard to keep people because they move elsewhere or they’re head-hunted by larger companies,” Shiers said. “We can’t promise them full-year work.”

Shiers wants to be able to take on more clients and needs qualified individuals so he can run multiple crews.

He said he has built a good reputation in the community since he opened his doors in 2008 and won’t compromise quality work. “I’m not going to hire people who aren’t qualified because I need help.” 

This year, he hopes to connect with the high school to create a summer internship program.

“Our goal is to encourage people to stay in the Oxford Hills and understand they can live and work here with good-paying jobs for community-oriented companies like Pleasant Hill,” Shiers said.

Employment sought

Gray and Peet agreed that most of the people they deal with seek full-time employment with benefits. People will hold fast to this “until things get very, very desperate. (When the) 26th week of unemployment has come, they become more flexible,” Peet said.

One of those people who’s coming up on his 26th (and final) week of unemployment is 65-year-old Michael Taylor of Otisfield. He was laid off in early October 2016 from KBS Building Systems during the annual layoff at the Waterford plant. Before that, he was laid off in May 2016 when Keiser Homes in Oxford shuttered.

Recently he was in the basement of the Norway Memorial Library with Peet, tapping into her computer skills to help him apply for jobs. Since October, he’s applied for gigs at Reny’s, Hannaford, Roopers Beverage, Thayer Corp., Advanced Auto Parts and Goodwin Chevrolet, to name a few.

Taylor’s wife is sick with her third bout of cancer and he wants a job in the area so he can still take care of her.

This is the second year in a row they did not have a Christmas, he said.

“I’ve never had to look for work like this in my life,” Taylor said. “Times have changed. It’s not easy anymore.”

He hopes he gets hired back at KBS come spring, but his job isn’t guaranteed. And he is not sure how he is going to buy groceries or take care of his wife properly once unemployment runs out.

“I do a lot of praying,” Taylor said.

Solutions?

One way the state CareerCenters are trying to connect those out of work with employers is through employer-based training.

“We go up to the businesses and say, ‘How do we make the job seekers that are looking for qualified for your jobs?’”

Some ways include getting community college and Adult Education involved and the state paying for training. There is a market for health care and IT jobs and training available for those looking to become certified nursing assistants, welders and carpenters, Gray said.

Job fairs are one way to connect employers with job seekers, and the Lewiston CareerCenter has one a month, usually with more than 30 businesses and between 100 and 200 job seekers. Western Maine Community Action has one once a year, usually in the spring, and normally there between 25 and 30 employers and roughly 100 job seekers.

“In the interim, I encourage people like the (Oxford) Casino to come into the library with me and do recruitment right in the library,” Peet said. “It has worked.”

The group agreed more could be done with the Maine JobLink Career Center, an online hub for employers and job seekers that posts jobs and training resources. As of Jan. 4, 7,550 jobs were posted and those usually range from gas attendants to brain surgeons, Gray said.

According to Peet, the November unemployment rate of 4 percent for the state “is not an accurate reflection of all people who could use a job.” The statistic “doesn’t capture 20-somethings home on the couch (or the) 60-year-olds who could use work.”

Gray agreed.

“The job seekers that don’t get looked at, they get tossed to the side because they don’t have all the job skills, but they’re good employees,” she said. “I think the answer to the problem is people need to be creative and think outside the box.”

This includes employers hiring veterans, seniors willing to work part time and people with criminal backgrounds.

“Are businesses thinking about rethinking criminal background?” Gray said. “Maybe we need to rethink that and give people a chance and open that up again.” 

Maher said Community Concepts has an ex-offender program that provides federal loans for start-up businesses for people with felonies. Gray believes this type of programming and thinking should extend to other businesses and have employers try to work around candidates’ limitations.

New Ventures has a class that is geared toward self-employment for the older crowd and Community Concepts hosts quick start classes to help seniors become self-sufficient, Maher said.

For more information, contact Community Concepts Finance Corp. at ccfcmaine.org or 207-333-6410; Western Maine Community Action at wmca.org or 743-7763; or the Lewiston CareerCenter at www.mainecareercenter.gov/locations/lewiston.shtml or 207-753-9001.

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