Maine Employment Change in 2020: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gabe, Todd and Diodato, William (2021): Maine Employment Change in 2020: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had large economic impacts worldwide. In Maine, year-over-year employment fell by 18 percent in April of 2020, and by 7.0 percent in December. Of Maine’s three metropolitan areas, Portland experienced the largest employment decrease between April 2019 and 2020. In December, employment in Bangor was 4.5 percent lower than twelve months earlier, compared with a 7.0 percent year-over-year employment decline in the Portland Metropolitan Area.

Maine’s Leisure and Hospitality sector had a 60 percent decline in year-over-year employment in April, and the sector’s employment was 29 percent lower than its 2019 level in December of 2020. Across Maine’s three metropolitan areas, retail employment returned to slightly above pre-pandemic levels over the last four months of 2020. By the end of 2020, retail employment in Portland hovered at about five percent above employment levels one year earlier.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: COVID-19, employment change, Maine
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I10 - General; L - Industrial Organization > L8 - Industry Studies: Services > L83 - Sports ; Gambling ; Restaurants ; Recreation ; Tourism; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

References

Gabe, Todd. 2020 “Maine Employment Change During the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Shift-Share Analysis.” University of Maine, School of Economics, Staff Paper 640. September.

Gabe, Todd, and Andrew Crawley. 2020. “Early Impacts of COVID-19 on Maine’s Hospitality Sector in 2020.” MPRA Paper 102678. September.

Gabe, Todd, and Richard Florida. 2021. “Impacts of Jobs Requiring Close Physical Proximity and High Interaction with the Public on U.S. Industry Employment Change During the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” MPRA Paper 105702. February.

Taylor, Derrick Bryson. 2020. “How the Coronavirus Pandemic Unfolded: A Timeline.” New York Times, June 9.