After wild swings last year, Maine economic growth off to sluggish start in 2018

James Myall, an economist and policy analyst with the Maine Center for Economic Policy, said Maine lawmakers are going to have to grapple with significant issues if Maine is to return to more robust growth.

He said a shift from a manufacturing economy to one more focused on services means that some Maine workers’ skills don’t line up with what’s needed in the job market. So the state might want to consider expanding job training programs, he said.

Myall and others noted that swings in state GDPs are typically more extreme in smaller states, like Maine. And there are factors that are absent from or less significant in other states, such as bad weather dampening economic output in the winter, Myall said.

Click here to read the full story, published July 26 in the Portland Press Herald.