As many Americans rejoined the workforce following the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment rates fell across the nation in 2021. However, Maine was dead-last, 50th in the nation, in unemployment recovery, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Maine’s annual unemployment rate improved from 5.4% in 2020 to 4.6% in 2021, a 17% improvement, which was the smallest statistical improvement among all 50 states. A recent article by the website Centersquare pointed out Maine’s dismal performance.
As Centersquare revealed, the unemployment rate fell every month in the majority of U.S. states throughout 2021. However, Maine’s employment rate lagged the country and compared to our neighboring states, dramatically underperformed in workforce participation. For example, New Hampshire posted the third best performance in unemployment recovery in the nation, dropping from 6.7% to 3.5% in 2021, a 91% improvement.
These numbers are reflective in Maine’s labor participation rate which fell below the U.S. average last October. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the population that is either currently working at a job or is actively looking for work. The U.S. average as of Oct. 2021 for the overall labor force participation rate was 58.7%. Maine’s average overall labor force participation rate fell below the U.S. average to 57.4%.
Maine’s poor workforce participation rates are a result of a series of abysmal public policy decisions in Augusta. Maine’s leaders are promoting the expansion of government entitlements over providing pathways and tools for Mainers to achieve self-sufficiency. It is imperative that Maine get back on the right track of promoting pro-growth policies if we are to compete economically nationally and internationally.