Trostel quoted in Times Record article on workforce board facing funding cuts
Philip Trostel, a professor in the School of Economics, was quoted in a Times Record article about Brunswick-based Coastal Counties Workforce Inc. learning it will likely face cuts in its federal funding in the next fiscal year. The nonprofit is one of three workforce boards in Maine that provides resources and services to help Mainers find employment, according to the article. In April, Maine’s unemployment rate was the fourth lowest in the country at 2.7 percent, the article states. But according to Trostel, the low unemployment rate was “almost completely unrelated” from the need for workforce training. “I do agree that just because the unemployment rate is lower doesn’t mean that the need for job training has evaporated,” Trostel said. “That’s just not the case. The job creation and destruction process in the labor market is always fluid, and people are switching jobs and so forth.”