Author: David E.M. Wood

We haven’t seen anything like it before. The jobs reports and unemployment numbers of the past 2½ years have repeatedly surprised the American public and confounded even the most imaginative labor economists.

Asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola are among the dozen or so foreign-born workers that Wild Oats Bakery has hired to boost its workforce at a time when workers are hard to come by.

The New Mainers Resource Center at Portland Adult Education works with New Mainers who come to the U.S. with college degrees and years of experience. Most people want to know if their college degrees will be recognized as they look for jobs, apply to schools, or seek licensing in their professions. Will a degree be recognized? The answer is it depends.

We haven’t seen anything like it before. The jobs reports and unemployment numbers of the past 2½ years have repeatedly surprised the American public and confounded even the most imaginative labor economists.

When Oumalkaire Said Barkad arrived in Maine in 2014 with a master’s degree from the Engineering School of Reims, France, she didn’t know about the many additional steps required to become a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the U.S. She soon waded into the complicated process for Maine residents with non-U.S. degrees – in many fields beyond just engineering – to receive professional certification.