Economists say Maine's housing shortage is impacting workforce migration to the state

When it comes to Maine's housing shortage, the state may have an even higher hill to climb than initially projected.

At MaineHousing's conference in Bangor Tuesday, State economist Amanda Rector said Maine's prime working age population is expected to drop by 5% by 2032. And she said that means Maine will need to rely on workers migrating into the state to buoy an aging workforce.

"In order to continue to see the kinds of services that we are all used to expecting, our labor force just isn't set up right now to continue to provide that," Rector said.

Rector, said adding workers will put more pressure on the state' housing inventory. At the same time, she says that economic forecasters have already pointed to Maine's tight housing market as a reason for why net migration into state has s