LEWISTON, Maine - Plenty of people are looking for jobs in Maine - the unemployment rate is hovering at 5.5 percent. But that's a 1 percent drop from last year, and some Career Center managers say the job market is finally turning the corner since the recession. This morning, the Lewiston Career Center was packed with employers eager to fill positions. It may be a job seekers' market, but finding the right match can still be tricky.
Thirty-four businesses came to the Lewiston Career Center Monday morning to lure a steady-stream of job seekers to their tables - companies that ranged from Circle K to Cianbro to Xerox. Xerox Operations Manager Leighanne LeBrasseur says her company is looking to hire a new batch of call center employees.
"The biggest the class can be is 25, and we've been getting classes of 15 or 10," she says. "So we have the opportunity - we have plenty of openings. We're really trying to get everybody in."
To fill those $9-an-hour positions, LeBrasseur says Xerox is doing more outreach. Lewiston Career Center Manager Mary LaFontaine says the demand for workers is so high that for the past year or so, the Career Center has held small job fairs every month, in addition to two big fairs a year. She says with the current job market, employers need to change their strategies for attracting employees.
"If they look at traditional sources, they're going to struggle. If they look at other talent pools - and I do mean talent pools - there's a lot of talent in our community that's not being tapped into," LaFontaine says - people like veterans, new Mainers and workers with disabilities.
LaFontaine says employers also should consider things like splitting full-time jobs into part-time jobs to attract older workers. Though the market favors job seekers, 59-year-old Susan Tiche, of Lewiston says finding a job can still be a challenge.
"It's not an enviable position to be in. I don't recommend it," she says. "But here I am, so I'm trying."
Tiche has been looking for a job since July. She worked at a customer service job in Portland, and is now looking for a similar job in the Lewiston area. Though she has experience, Tiche says she still feels behind the eight ball when it comes to computer skills, especially when she compares herself to younger workers. "So that's become a bit of an obstacle block for me - being able to put together a PowerPoint, being able to type as fast as they do," she says.
Enter the job skills gap. Heidi Sawyer of Manpower - a company that provides temporary staffing and direct hiring - says the job skills gap in Maine is often associated with highly-technical skills. But she says the gap crosses many careers.
"It's sales, it's drivers. It's hospitality. Retail. There is a skills gap that's out there," Sawyer says, "so anything you can do to improve yourself would be greatly beneficial to you and your career."
That gap also extends to soft skills, says Jessica Palladino of Formed Fiber, an automotive manufacturing company in Auburn. Palladino says her company is currently looking for employees to fill 30 positions that pay between $10 to $14 an hour.
"They've done a really good job of focusing on those hard skills - the education - but they don't understand the soft skills of showing up on time, or that they are at the facility when they need to be," Palladino says.
Places like the Lewiston Career Center and Manpower train job seekers in both soft and hard skills, sometimes directly matching to a specific company's needs. But even with that assistance available, John Bunten of Auburn says he's limited by lack of transportation, as well as health issues with his spine. "It's really hard to find work that goes around not only my limitations but also what they're looking for," Bunten says. "So it's very difficult to find something that suits both of us."
Bunten says he's already applied for 20 jobs. He's hoping to land work in an office setting, but says his past experience as a restaurant cook is a difficult skill to transfer. Bunten says he's also a recovering addict, and is finding it hard to explain why he's had so many short-term jobs in the past. He hopes to return to college one day. For now, he'd like a job that pays at least $9 or $10 an hour. "Now I'm just trying to start over and do the right thing," he says.
Heidi Sawyer of Manpower says there are between 8,000 and 10,000 jobs available in Maine. Landing one, she says, takes knowing how to market and sell yourself.
