Today we learn that a GE Healthcare subsidiary will close its Sanford plant, throwing 225 people out of work by the end of 2009. The Portland Press Herald has a reporter and photographer on the scene, working on a story.

At least initially, it looks like this closure has more to do with corporate consolidation than current economic conditions. Employees told our reporter, Beth Quimby, that they had been expecting the announcement for months, after GE purchased the plant in April.

Even so, the announcement had me talking to the staff about jobs, and that our team needs to be looking at the area's employment situation closely. It's the other shoe of this economic downturn, the one that hasn't dropped yet.

During the last two recessions in Maine, it seemed as though the newspaper reported daily on big layoff announcements and the struggles that people confronted in finding work. Those mass layoffs haven't been happening in southern Maine, though employers clearly have tightened up on hiring and made job cuts that aren't as public as a plant closure.

So far, Maine's employment picture has held up remarkably well, at least by the numbers, despite the slowdown in consumer spending, the real estate slump, a national financial-market crisis and widespread job insecurity. We all hope that continues.

The Maine Department of Labor recently announced that unemployment remained at 5.5 percent last month, well below the national rate of 6.1 percent and far better than harder-hit areas such as California and New Mexico.

The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning advocacy group, has published a great interactive map that shows unemployment across the country and provides details for each state.

You can use it to closely watch the employment picture too.

E-mail this entry to a friend