A 29-year-old Union woman was named Maine state economist last month.
As the state’s top economic researcher, Amanda Rector will advise the governor’s office and other policy makers on decisions that affect Maine’s growth and economic future.
“I look forward to working on my goal of improving the economic well-being of Maine and everyone who lives here,” Rector said. She grew up in Camden and left Maine for Wellesley College “fully intending to come back.”
It was during a finance theory class that she realized her direction. “I was the only person in the class not intending to become an investment banker,” she said. “I realized that I wanted to be in the public sector or non-profit sector, trying to make Maine a better place.”
She returned to Maine after earning a bachelor’s degree in economics. In 2004 she took a job at the Maine Dept. of Labor. While working there she began work on a master’s degree in public policy at the University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service.
She moved to the Maine State Planning Office as an economist in 2007, in 2009 she was promoted to senior economist, and in May 2010 she finished her master’s degree.
“It’s one of the benefits of being in Maine,” she said. “If you’re willing to work hard, you have an opportunity to make a difference more quickly than other places.”
Rector said the problems of Maine’s economic and demographic future put her in a uniquely challenging position. Maine’s economy likely won’t see substantial growth until the country as a whole starts to recover, and the state is poised to be one of the first to struggle with the effects of a rapidly aging population.
The aging population is expected to be a national problem, but one that Maine is on the leading edge of, Rector said. Maine is currently the oldest state in the nation.
“The people working today are likely to be the same ones that will be working in 10 years,” she said. “There’s no one coming in behind them.”
Much of Rector’s work in the coming years will focus on this problem, and she said there are several key goals Maine needs to focus on: attracting more skilled workers; ensuring the existing workforce has the training and resources needed for the future; gearing education toward the skills that will be needed; and keeping the older population engaged.
“We can’t have them all retire at once,” she said.
According to Rector, as the state ages, there will be an increase in demand for healthcare and other services associated with an older population. Positions throughout the workforce will need to be filled as an increasing percentage of the population retires.
Although jobs will be available, they will require a higher degree of technical skill. “We’re going to see more growth in manufacturing industries that require a high degree of technical knowledge and jobs that require more math background,” she said. “The insurance industry, health care, jobs that require more technically skilled workers.”
To provide that workforce, Rector said Maine needs to ensure the state’s education system is preparing workers for the jobs that will be available, including focus on science technology and math, and teaching so-called soft skills, such as how to behave professionally, provide good customer service and communicate. “People have to learn it somewhere, and more and more businesses are expecting people to have those skills already,” she said. “There’s a quite a bit of work that needs to be done.”
Another option is to attract educated people to the state through programs like tax breaks or student loan forgiveness that encourage people with college degrees to move to Maine. The same principals and incentives can be applied to attracting businesses, she said.
The important thing, she said, is that Maine’s policy results in job growth and investment, while maintaining the quality of life that Rector and so many others enjoy.
“A lot of my friends in high school felt the allure of going away, but it’s important not to let that completely obscure your vision of Maine,” Rector said. “A lot of people leave and then in a few years think, ‘I’d like to go back to Maine, but I can’t afford it,’ or ‘I can’t find a job,’ but there are a lot of benefits to living in a place like Maine.”
The size of the challenge Maine faces, with no guides or successful examples from other states, is not lost on Rector, but she said she’s prepared.
“I found a field I’m well suited to,” she said. “On an analytical and creative level, I’ve always liked puzzles.”
The puzzles Rector works with as Maine’s economist are large, with a lot of moving parts, and she said they’ve led her to see the world in ways she didn’t before. “It’s trying to keep the big overarching perspective: how the latest news out of Greece will affect investing in the US, and the things that are specific to Maine, how the blueberry crop is doing this year.”
When she’s not in her Augusta office or meeting with Maine’s leaders, she lives in Union with her husband in a farmhouse that used to belong to her grandparents.
Married last year, they now spend their time fixing the house, planting vegetables and raising chickens. “Food is a big part of my life,” she said.
She describes her home life as a busy release from the pressures of her professional world.
“It’s a completely different set of skill and muscles,” she said. “It’s nice to go out and just get your hands dirty. I might be thinking about blueberries, but I’m probably not thinking about Greece.”
She and her husband don’t have kids “yet,” she said, “but we’ll be sure to do our part to contribute to the need for a younger population.”