Sep. 4—First of five parts
Read the Not Working series
On a bright June afternoon recruiters for about 10 health care companies lined the hallway at the Portland Career Center.
They sat behind folding tables piled high with job applications, and advertisements for training, professional development and signing bonuses. Pens, water bottles, stress balls and other freebies were arranged to lure job seekers for dozens of empty positions.
Over the course of a few hours, just a trickle of workers came through. Recruiters and human resources managers worked on laptops, scrolled on their cellphones or chatted with each other to pass the time.
"It is not an employer's market — it is an employee's market," said Denise Jodoin-Gaidis, operations manager at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.
Jodoin-Gaidis has spent hours and hours at recent job fairs, desperately hiring therapists for individuals with autism. The result is the same — only a few job seekers and almost no applicants. The likelihood of hiring someone is slim, but she shows up to fairs anyway.
"Even if you just get your name out there, there might be someone who considers a position," Jodoin-Gaidis said.
Two years after an unemployment tsunami threw 1 in 10 Maine workers out of a job, the state's labor market has been set to hyperdrive. Urgent hiring signs are everywhere. In southern Maine, $15 an hour is a de facto starting wage, $2.25 more than the statewide minimum.
But many employers are still having an...
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