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Log inMaine employers urged to adjust for dynamic economic changes
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Maine employers urged to adjust for dynamic economic changes
by Outspoken on Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:48 am
Maine employers urged to adjust for dynamic economic changes
BY LYNN ASCRIZZI
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE -- As thousands of area residents know, central Maine's business climate is churning, and not all for the better.
"Everything is in play in an economy that no longer is based on factories and low skills," said economist John Dorrer, director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information, of the state Department of Labor.
Now, he said, businesses are outsourcing. X-rays are being read in India and billing information is being done overseas. Maine is also competing with other states, he added.
"What looked good three years ago ... is not so good now. It's a highly fluid situation."
Dorrer spoke Thursday at a Thomas College talk called, "Central Maine's Dynamic Labor Market: Who is Hiring, and Who is Getting Hired?" The talk was part of the Business Breakfast Series organized by the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce.
"If you're not comfortable wallowing in ambiguity," he said, "it will be not be easy to deal with change."
In a Powerpoint presentation to about 40 members of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, Dorrer focused on the demographics of the workforce in Kennebec County and statewide, data that included workers' average age, educational levels and the face of changing labor markets.
"Demographics is destiny," he said.
Employers need to know what the picture of the local work force looks like, he explained, so they can improve their position in a fiercely competitive labor market.
"You have to skate to where you think the puck is going to be," he said.
The five highest employing occupations in Kennebec County, from highest to least high, he said, are: office and administrative support (average salary $26,541); sales ($22,734); food preparation and serving ($17,482); transportation and material moving ($24, 211) and health-care practitioners ($51,002). Education is key to a flexible, skilled workforce, he added. Higher education is no longer dominated by the United States and the European Union.
In 2003, the number of college graduates in China was 1 million; in the United States that year, it was 1.4 million. By 2015, China will surge to 5 million college graduates; the United States will be lagging with 2.5 million, he said.
"This is your high-end work force -- professors, scientists, technicians. We no longer own that world," he said.
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5147385.html
BY LYNN ASCRIZZI
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE -- As thousands of area residents know, central Maine's business climate is churning, and not all for the better.
"Everything is in play in an economy that no longer is based on factories and low skills," said economist John Dorrer, director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information, of the state Department of Labor.
Now, he said, businesses are outsourcing. X-rays are being read in India and billing information is being done overseas. Maine is also competing with other states, he added.
"What looked good three years ago ... is not so good now. It's a highly fluid situation."
Dorrer spoke Thursday at a Thomas College talk called, "Central Maine's Dynamic Labor Market: Who is Hiring, and Who is Getting Hired?" The talk was part of the Business Breakfast Series organized by the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce.
"If you're not comfortable wallowing in ambiguity," he said, "it will be not be easy to deal with change."
In a Powerpoint presentation to about 40 members of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, Dorrer focused on the demographics of the workforce in Kennebec County and statewide, data that included workers' average age, educational levels and the face of changing labor markets.
"Demographics is destiny," he said.
Employers need to know what the picture of the local work force looks like, he explained, so they can improve their position in a fiercely competitive labor market.
"You have to skate to where you think the puck is going to be," he said.
The five highest employing occupations in Kennebec County, from highest to least high, he said, are: office and administrative support (average salary $26,541); sales ($22,734); food preparation and serving ($17,482); transportation and material moving ($24, 211) and health-care practitioners ($51,002). Education is key to a flexible, skilled workforce, he added. Higher education is no longer dominated by the United States and the European Union.
In 2003, the number of college graduates in China was 1 million; in the United States that year, it was 1.4 million. By 2015, China will surge to 5 million college graduates; the United States will be lagging with 2.5 million, he said.
"This is your high-end work force -- professors, scientists, technicians. We no longer own that world," he said.
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5147385.html
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
