Remote working in Maine to stay for a while, survey shows
File Photo / Tim Greenway
Live + Work in Maine Executive Director Nate Wildes says, "We were pleasantly surprised to see that the vast majority of respondents were not only happy and satisfied with their work in Maine through COVID, but saw themselves working in Maine long into the future."
Even as Maine's economy slowly reopens and some people return to offices, remote working is here to say, according to a survey released Tuesday by Live + Work in Maine.
It found that nearly eight in 10 Maine workers currently working from home intend to continue doing so at least part-time even when pandemic restrictions are fully lifted.
More than 300 Maine residents participants in the survey by Live + Work in Maine, a nonprofit private-sector initiative that markets the state as a career destination.
"We were pleasantly surprised to see that the vast majority of respondents were not only happy and satisfied with their work in Maine through COVID, but saw themselves working in Maine long into the future," Nate Wildes, executive director of Live + Work in Maine, told Mainebiz via email.
"This included about half of all respondents indicating an interest in working for a Maine-based employer, and the other wanting to work in Maine for either themselves or for a global company based elsewhere," he said.
Of respondents currently working remotely, nearly half (47%) have been working from home for less than a year and 78% have worked from home less than three years.
More than 35% reported they will “definitely” continue working from home post-pandemic, while another 47% intend to work remotely at least part of the time.
Longer term, more than half of respondents said they want to be working for a Maine employer in five to 10 years from now, while 30% said they’d like to be working in Maine for a company based elsewhere (remotely or otherwise).
Close to a quarter said they would prefer to work for themselves, and several claimed to have already found their dream job in Maine.
At the same time, about one out of three respondents indicated they didn't know what kinds of new career paths Maine has to offer.
"This is a great indicator that Maine is attracting talented people to live and work here, and there remains an enormous opportunity to engage and educate those people about the reality of the thousands of high-quality careers available to them at Maine based employers," Wildes said.
He also said the survey findings reinforce the need for multiple approaches to Maine's talent attraction and retention strategy.
"As far as priorities go for the next year," he said, "finding new and better ways we can work together to retain the talented and diverse people Maine needs to be successful in the future, is at the top of the list."
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