As Mainers prepare to celebrate Labor Day next Monday, the average wage is up and so is the number of people employed. Defying logic, the unemployment rate also has risen as the number of people looking for work outpaces the number of new jobs that have been created.

Statewide the average wage is $31,897 and seasonally adjusted unemployment was 5 percent in July.

In the last 10 years, from 1994 to 2004, 20,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, driven by cuts at the mills. Paper mills accounted for 5,000 lost jobs; leather goods like shoes – 6,800; and, textiles, 4,400.

Paper mills were stable employers until the late 1990s and had been for 40 years, according to Glenn Mills, a senior analyst at the labor department. And, they also paid the most as compared to textile and leather manufacturing jobs.

There is no single sector driving Maine’s emerging economy, which has gained 82,300 jobs from 1994 to 2004, but health care coupled with social services leads the pack.

The fact the state has added jobs but seen its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate go up is a function of more people looking for work. Year-over-year in July, 3,700 jobs were created but the unemployment rate went from 4.5 percent to 5 percent.

Dana Evans, the state labor economist, said it’s not clear yet what’s happening, but it is likely a combination of things.

The state has seen a population increase of 8,000 in the first four years of the decade and some young people, who were already here, reached working age. Simply stated, Evans said, the increase in the labor force is exceeding the number of new jobs available.

Copy the Story Link