Mainebiz

V O L . X X I V N O X X V I I I D E C E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 8 12 S hortly before Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, Macy's placed an online ad seeking seasonal help for its South Portland store. No experience necessary. Full-time work. A 20% merchandise discount, starting the first day of employment. And the ad promised even more: "Advanced scheduling: Know your schedule six weeks in advance! Easy application process: Apply in as little as 10 minutes! Get hired today: Two easy ways to apply!" Macy's, which declined to comment on the plea, showed an urgency that is understandable in today's job market — an urgency that might sound famil- iar to other employers. Maine's unemployment rate in October amounted to just 3.4%, accord- ing to seasonally adjusted data from the Maine Department of Labor. at level was even lower than the U.S. rate of 3.7%, and nearly unchanged from Maine's September rate of 3.3% and from 3.2% the previous October. In fact, October 2018 was the 35th consecutive month in which Maine recorded an unemployment rate below 4%, the longest such period since it began tracking the percentage. Going to extremes While questions persist about how long unemployment will remain this low, Maine employers are facing an ever greater scarcity of job-seekers. Around the state, employers are stepping up their hiring efforts, offering signing bonuses, a wider range of benefits, flexible work arrangements and, with some reluctance, higher pay. Often with no applicants to show for the added perks. "It's brutal," says Scott Dugas, owner of Yarmouth-based Scott Dugas Trucking & Excavating, which has had an ongoing opening for two mechanics to keep the heavy machin- ery in working order. Dugas has advertised the jobs in a variety of online media and says his company offers competitive wages and a generous benefits package. But the enticements have been of little use. "e past year has been the worst [hiring market] in the 40 years we've done business," he says, adding that he doesn't want to raid his competitors. "I don't really want to take my com- petitors' employees because most of us are friends and I don't want to lose my employees to them," Dugas adds. "I think the answer is to get employees from areas where there are no jobs — Downeast, northern Maine. e prob- lem is that housing has gotten so costly that those people can't move." It's the same story around the state. In Machias, Freshies convenience store advertised a shift leader opening with an array of health benefits and perks that included discounts on heat- ing oil, propane and natural gas. At the Kittery Trading Post, the employee discount is 30%. Most workers also receive holiday pay, profit sharing, merchandise loans and charge accounts at the hunting and camping goods store, according to its website. roughout the state, car dealer- ships and garages are luring service technicians with sign-on bonuses as large as $10,000. A Presque Isle hair salon offered stylists $1,000 for joining. Mainers are receiving hundreds of dol- lars in incentives to become newspaper carriers and bus drivers, restaurant serv- ers and highway rest-stop cleaners. Bonuses are also a popular recruit- ing tool among Maine police forces. Westbrook last summer advertised $14,000 bonuses for new officers with five years' experience. Portland offers a bonus of $10,000, and earlier this year relaxed rules that had barred non-citi- zens and recent users of marijuana from joining the police department. Other employers are also impatient with the hiring crunch, according to James Brissenden, a board member of the Society for Human Resource Management's Maine council and busi- ness development director for Clark Insurance in Portland. "Everyone's making a mad dash for talent, and there's a sense that the clock is ticking," Brissenden says. "It's difficult just to find bodies." Behind the numbers While it may challenge HR profes- sionals, a low unemployment rate is generally considered a sign of a strong economy. By that measure, Maine is doing well, says Glenn Mills, the Labor Department's chief economist. "We're in a very good situation," Mills says. "It would be very difficult for it to get any better." Another economist wonders how long Maine can sustain such a low jobless rate. "ere is plenty of uncertainty and disagreement," says Philip Trostel, an economics professor at the University of Maine's Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center. "History over recent decades suggests that the current low unemployment rate is not sustainable. But the fact that there is still no strong evidence that wages are rising rapidly suggests the current rate is." Sustainable or not, the statewide unemployment level says little about the strength of local economies. October data show unemployment rates of 2.6% in Sagadahoc County and 2.7% in Cumberland County, both up slightly from 2.3% from 2017. But October unemployment levels reached 4.4% in Aroostook and Washington counties. And in Oxford County, the rate jumped from 3.2% in 2017 to 4%. Disparities extend to the industries where jobs are growing. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY H R / R E C R U I T M E N T F O C U S Scott Dugas, owner of Yarmouth-based Scott Dugas Trucking & Excavating, which has had an ongoing opening for two mechanics to keep the heavy machinery in working order. He says the hiring environment has been "brutal." Mainers are receiving hundreds of dollars in incentives to become newspaper carriers and bus drivers, restaurant servers and highway rest-stop cleaners. A Presque Isle hair salon offered stylists $1,000 for joining. Hiring pressures push companies to unprecedented lengths to find workers B y W i l l i a m H a l l What's next Maine's labor for shortage?

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