Economic opportunity in Maine is not an inevitable result of rural geography, but a consequence of state and federal policy choices that have boosted growth in the Portland metro area while leaving much of the state behind.
State of Working Maine 2025 examines economic trends across six regions of Maine and finds persistent disparities in income, employment, job quality, and access to basic needs such as food, child care, and health care. While the Portland metro area has seen steady and substantial economic growth for more than two decades, rural regions in the West and Northeast have experienced almost no economic gains since 2001.
While this trend has emerged over several decades, differences in state and federal responses to economic downturns have influenced its severity and persistence. Policies during the Great Recession deepened hardship in rural Maine, while stronger federal action and targeted state investments during COVID-19 helped stabilize more remote communities. Despite these gains, many rural Mainers still face unequal access to good jobs, benefits, and safety-net programs.
The report shows solutions that address the regional differences in Maine’s economy will benefit Mainers living on low incomes or facing other economic headwinds throughout the state.
Policies at work
- The federal response to the COVID-19 recession was roughly three times larger than the response to the Great Recession, boosting recovery statewide
- Unemployment rates in 2024 were among the lowest in decades, reflecting a strong post-COVID recovery
- Working Mainers below the poverty line declined 27% between 2014-16 and 2022-24
- Maine’s minimum wage rose from $7.50 in 2016 to $12 in 2020, increasing annually with inflation thereafter
- Mainers received nearly $8 billion in Social Security benefits in fiscal year 2025
- Mainers received $12.8 billion more in federal benefits than they paid in taxes in 2023
- MaineCare provided $3.5 billion in health services, expanding access for low-income residents
- SNAP delivered $291 million in food assistance, reducing food insecurity and supporting local economies
- Health insurance coverage has expanded since 2010 through marketplace subsidies and Medicaid expansion
- Nearly 1 in 7 Maine workers is a public employee; small businesses employ 30% of workers in Mid-Coast Maine
Charts
Figure 1: The gap between Portland and other areas has grown
Figure 2: The COVID recovery was larger and more equitably distributed than that from the Great Recession
Figure 3: Federal COVID funds were particularly impactful in Northeast Maine
Includes federal spending in Maine through the CARES Act, Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020, American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Where identifiable, includes pass-through funds in the ARPA that were allocated by state government through the Maine Jobs Plan. Excludes $1.2 billion in funding in the 2020 appropriations bill that went to Bath Iron Works for defense contracts, and $2 billion of funding that was recorded as being spent in Kennebec County but was actually sub-granted by the State of Maine to different projects.
Figure 4: Poverty has improved, but less so in rural Maine
Figure 5: Unemployment is persistently higher outside the Portland metro area
Figure 6: Labor force participation among prime age Mainers is lowest in rural Maine
Figure 7: Rural Mainers are more likely to work part-time and seasonal jobs
Figure 8: Around a third of full-time workers in every region earn less than a living wage
Figure 9: Gender wage gaps are largest in rural Maine
Figure 10: Racial earnings gaps vary across the state
Figure 11: Mid-Coast Mainers are most likely to be self-employed
Figure 12: More Mainers work for small businesses in Mid-Coast, Western, and Northeastern Maine
Figure 13: Public sector employment is highest outside Portland and Mid-Coast areas
Figure 14: Pandemic unemployment insurance stabilized rural Maine
Figure 15: Food insecurity is rising everywhere and is highest outside Portland
Figure 16: SNAP has extra economic importance in Western and Northeast Maine
Figure 17: Changes to SNAP policy meant less help getting to Mainers with low income
Figure 18: The Affordable Care Act has improved insurance rates across Maine, but less in the Northeast and Western regions
Figure 19: Mid-Coast, Northeast use Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance most
Figure 20: Recent expansions of MaineCare have been especially impactful in Northeast and Western Maine
View full report for notes and acknowledgments.