Looking to settle in Maine.

[quietnights]

Originally Posted by jdorm41

Would anyone know how hard it would be to find employment with 23 years of business experience and a bachelor's degree in business?

Experience and a degree are a good start, but as we've mentioned to you previously in this thread, it depends on in which location you're looking and in what field. Your question is very generic and I'm not sure how anyone here can answer it. What steps have you already taken in your Maine job search? Are you seeing jobs in online searches you're interested in applying for?

[Submariner]

One of my tenants called me about a running toilet, as I was there replacing the flapper today, and one of their employees quit. She had already earned too much and was in fear of losing her food stamps benefit if she kept working. My tenant employs home-healthcare aids, they have a lot of clients, but their pool of employees is largely unreliable. People will only work until their food stamps is threatened, or until they can go back onto unemployment.

They have an office in Houlton and one in Old Town. People refuse to work in the Houlton area, so they are looking at closing their Houlton office, even though they have an abundant pool of clients up there.

[jdorm41]

I suppose that is too generic for it to help anyone answer it. My wife was wanting me to ask on her behalf. She has worked in tye administration field for 23 years, as she is currently teaching classes to customers educating them on Microsoft word, Excel, and business management. She will be interested in looking for something similar. As for myself, I work at Walmart and am currently looking at getting into the assistant manager position at several locations that are currently vacant. A transfer for me will be pretty simple, as it's my wife's job that we'll need to be researching. I hope that sheds more light on my previous question.

[Maineac]

You do understand that once a benefit is cut, you have to go through a whole new process to get the benefit again? So you get a job, work, work, all of a sudden no work, you get a nice solid lag period where you have nothing. ESPECIALLY if you're one of the self-employed where no withholding, no worker's comp, no unemployment insurance. No money, no benefit. It's a balancing act for many. If they had a living wage (not that this is about min. wage) that was consistent year in and year out, it would certainly be easier for an individual.

I know an awful lot of working people in the Houlton area, so broad-brushing with "people refuse to work in the Houlton area" is pretty rough. Home health assistance is ridiculously low wage - rock bottom - for what those people have to do (contemplate it for a minute). The private "agencies" that employ them pay their administrators well into six figures. Then pay the people that actually do the work next to nothing. I've dealt with quite a few. The people don't actually WORK for the "agency" itself (there's one based out of Presque Isle), they're self-employed, independent contractors. So, on top of getting paid squat, they get to pay SE tax as well. The "agency" bills on the order of $125.00 per hour for their "service," (not the workers, just doing the logistics), and the workers get squat. I wouldn't do it.

[maineguy8888]

Originally Posted by jdorm41

I suppose that is too generic for it to help anyone answer it. My wife was wanting me to ask on her behalf. She has worked in tye administration field for 23 years, as she is currently teaching classes to customers educating them on Microsoft word, Excel, and business management. She will be interested in looking for something similar. As for myself, I work at Walmart and am currently looking at getting into the assistant manager position at several locations that are currently vacant. A transfer for me will be pretty simple, as it's my wife's job that we'll need to be researching. I hope that sheds more light on my previous question.

The unemployment rate in Maine right now is around 3.5%. It's not much higher than that even here in northern Maine. So with her experience she should be able to find a decent job almost anywhere.
Caveat: if you move to a rural, spread-out part of Maine, she might have to drive 15-30 minutes to work. If she hates driving, then move to a city (although the commuting time in the Portland area can be just as bad.....Bangor is not too great either).

[jdorm41]

We’ve actually moved to the Texas area.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by jdorm41

We’ve actually moved to the Texas area.

That's pretty close to what Maine had to offer. Good luck to you.