Shortage Of Foreign Labor Forces Maine Businesses To Hire Local Workers

Looks like the many businesses in Maine are looking hard for help. H-2B visa's are all used up. Now they have to turn to the locals.

Businesses in Bar Harbor, Maine are turning to locals to make up for a shortage of foreign guest workers that normally fill summer jobs in the bustling seaside resort town.

Because the H-2B visa program has already reached its annual quota, Bar Harbor’s hotels, restaurants and shops can’t bring in any more foreign workers for the rest of the busy summer tourist season. Like hundreds of similar coastal resort towns, Bar Harbor has for many years depended on the H-2B visas for temporary workers. The program allows non-agricultural companies to bring in foreign labor if they are unable to find suitable employees domestically.

Law makers want more H-2b help, workers from around the world to fill positions.

Several lawmakers are pressuring the Trump administration to authorize more H-2B visas, and DHS is expected to announce a higher cap this month. Independent Maine Sen. Angus King has introduced legislation that would restore the returning worker rule.

dailycaller.com...

The companies are offering flexible work schedules and OH MY GOODNESS. The companies have gone so far as to offer HIGHER WAGES!!!!!

The shortage is so acute that companies are sweetening incentives for local workers. Searchfield says some businesses are offering flexible schedules that might appeal to older workers who might be interested in working only a day or two each week. And other companies have gone so far as to offer higher wages to entice locals.

Then there is this story that says there is not a worker shortage....Who knows.

Wage Data Undercuts Claims Of Worker Shortage In Seasonal Jobs
Employers of seasonal labor and the lawmakers who represent them are demanding the Trump administration raise the cap on guest worker visas because they supposedly can’t find enough Americans to fill job vacancies.

But wage trends in many job fields covered by the H-2B visa program suggest claims of a chronic worker shortage are overblown, according to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

dailycaller.com...

a reply to: seasonal


Why not hire those who are unemployed? How about training them? We all know that the unemployment numbers are higher than stated due to those who quit looking for work, so how about hitting those up on welfare who don't have a good medical reason for NOT working?

a reply to: seasonal

Supply and demand, less workers equals better pay for the ones that are there

a reply to: seeker1963

Free market rules (barring importation of low wage competition) when labor is scarce means raise wages.

But seems that only the lowering of wages is when virtue of the free market is applied. When wages should go up-the free market is usually ignored.

Maybe Portland Maine should ship up some homeless.

I saw no less than a dozen beggars in five miles since I got off the free way down here- and down town where I used to work you couldn't go down the street without tripping over them.

No shortage of out of work people, and no shortage of "now hiring" signs on every door of every business.

It's too easy to live on welfare up here- why work?

a reply to: seasonal

What a shame, a bunch of out of state interests that own these places will have to sink to the level of hiring locals. Poor things.

a reply to: Ksihkehe

They will hire no locals if they don't raise wages.

a reply to: seeker1963

That's an interesting question. My guess is that the unemployed in Maine are so decrepit that they couldn't begin to do the job. Went to a town nearby our home, (34) miles and was amazed at the number of people we see who are young, but so morbidly obese they have travel the sidewalks in electric 4 wheel scooters. Don't expect to ever see them working a restaurant............they'd consume the profits.

We've been told for years that immigrants do the jobs that Americans won't do.
That's only half true, though.

When I was a senior in high school, I made $12/ hr working in kitchens.
After high school, but before my culinary degrees, I was making $16-$18/ hr.

Nowadays, you'd get just over half that.

The idea that Americans "won't" do certain jobs isn't entirely true.
We'd rather not do those jobs for extremely low pay.

originally posted by: lordcomac
Maybe Portland Maine should ship up some homeless.

I saw no less than a dozen beggars in five miles since I got off the free way down here- and down town where I used to work you couldn't go down the street without tripping over them.

No shortage of out of work people, and no shortage of "now hiring" signs on every door of every business.

It's too easy to live on welfare up here- why work?

Homeless rarely want to work, especially long term homeless. It's why getting them off the streets is so problematic, most homeless are people who have been screwed over by the system and are intensely distrustful of it. They have no desire to return to working, paying taxes, and paying rent.

a reply to: Oaktree

When H-2B visa holders are brought in it interrupts the "natural" economic pressures and causes ripples that encourage certain segments of the work force to be exploited.
This is why the businesses in Maine will find great difficulty getting locals to take those jobs until they honor the free market by raising pay til positions get filled.

Oh my god. They are forced to hire American citizens there, that is terrible. Considering the costs of things there, they could easily afford to pay more, but doing so would cut the money going into the CEO's or managers pocket

a reply to: seasonal "Shortage Of Foreign Labor Forces Maine Businesses To Hire Local Workers"....

How terrible!!! How could that happen!?

Well how very terrible for Maine businesses.

Forced to hire their own countrymen and pay them a decent wage for their work.

Can't help but think that should be the standard as opposed to the exception...