Jobs fair reflects of economic pulse
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — For people looking for work in Aroostook County, there is not a huge variety within easy reach, but a range of professions across the blue and white collar spectrum.
Despite long-term impacts of the Great Recession, the regional economy in northern Maine is actually fairly healthy, said Pete Lento, a consultant at the Presque Isle Career Center, which hosted a job fair at the Aroostook Centre Mall recently.
“People do leave,” Lento said, referring the region’s youth living and working elsewhere. “But there is a lot of opportunity.” There are more than 200 jobs within 70 miles of Presque Isle listed in the Maine Job Bank, and others listed elsewhere, he noted, and Aroostook County’s unemployment rate is under 5 percent.
Today it’s “an employee’s market,” with job seekers having more choices and requiring companies to compete, said Maine Labor Commissioner Jeanne Paquette, speaking at a breakfast with the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce.
“We have to broaden our horizon,” Paquette said. “You need to get creative with how you recruit and how you retain, looking at populations that you may have not been considering proactively in the past — veterans, people with disabilities, new Mainers. If we can just make the connections, we’ll be able to get good jobs to good people at good employers.”
Forty-five employers representing government agencies, health care providers, manufacturers and others were at the job fair, meeting with work-seekers about open or soon-to-open positions.
Health care, the largest industry in many places around the country, continues to need many skilled workers in nursing, medical assisting, administrative and other areas.
“Nursing is a field that never goes away,” Lento said. Rural hospitals in Maine sometimes turn to short-term travel nurses, and across the state and country an older generation of nurses is set to retire over the coming decade — at the same time that more baby boomers are retiring and using Medicare.
Nursing is also evolving, not only relegated to an acute inpatient setting and with more opportunities to advance and train as a nurse practitioner serving in primary care. Nurses in Aroostook County can earn a master’s of science leading to an NP in Presque Isle at Husson University.
In a different part of the health and social services economy, there is the behavioral health field, helping children with special needs and adults with addiction and illness. The positions are ones that people can dive into for a career switch, with a willingness to learn and take a certification, said Meghan O’Berry, chief operations officer at Life By Design, a case management services organization at the jobs fair.
Successful counselors come from a lot of different backgrounds, and don’t have to be young; they need to be able to work to help other people, O’Berry said. “We’ll pretty much for with anyone.”
The field of behavioral health is in demand partly because the unfair stigma of mental illness and addiction has been reduced, and with expanded insurance coverage people are able to get counseling and treatment services.
“Addiction affects everyone,” said Olivia Cyr, a University of Maine Presque Isle psychology student who also works as a certified alcohol and other drug abuse counselor. Cyr started out as an aide, and now leads a free weekly group that lets individuals learn more about addiction and recovery in a community setting.
Other employers were on hand at the jobs fairs from traditional industries that are today changing, but still in need of skilled workers, including McCain Foods, Pineland Farms, Irving, Acme Monaco, the Maine State Police, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The latter federal agency, the CBP, is a good fit for Mainers who like to work outdoors, protect public safety, speak another language and live in other parts of the country, said J.K. Toussaint, a 20-year Border Patrol agent and Madawaska native. “We’re always in the field,” said Toussaint, who worked in Texas, California, Detroit and then Maine.
Like Toussaint, Mainers who want to work for the Border Patrol have to pass skills and background clearances, train at an academy in New Mexico, learn Spanish and then serve for at least several years at the southern U.S. border, the border with higher volumes of traffic and illicit drug smuggling problems.
Starting salaries for the CBP are just under $39,000 and can rise to as much as $70,000 with advance within three years.
