During a five-month investigation of Maine's economy, two reporters from The Portland Newspapers interviewed more than 100 people. They included Maine workers, economists, government officials, educators, business executives, job counselors, financial planners, union leaders and others.

Reporters also visited numerous businesses throughout the state, traveled to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to interview leading national experts and studied census and labor documents at libraries and government offices.

Computer databases also played an important role in the project. Reporters obtained and analyzed several databases to produce some of the series' major findings.

Among the major databases:

• A database from the Maine Department of Labor listing more than 500 job occupations in Maine, along with employment levels over time and the average hourly wage in 1993.

  Reporters used computers to analyze the information. Among the key findings: The state lost more than 7,000 jobs between 1989 and 1995 mostly in production, management and construction that pay between $8 and $15 per hour. It gained almost an equal number of service and retail jobs that pay less than $8 an hour.

• The same database was combined with information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows the predominant skill level found nationally in each occupation. A team of experts from the BLS spent a year to create the database, which ties skill levels ranging from short-term, on-the-job-training to a professional degree to specific occupations. The information was released earlier this year.

  Key findings from the analysis: Jobs in Maine that generally require a college degree pay twice as much as those that don't - $18 an hour versus $9. Also, Maine has gained more than 8,000 jobs since 1989 that generally require a college education. In the same period, the state has lost more than 5,000 jobs that don't require a college education.

• Reporters created a database on income earnings in Maine using figures provided by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The IRS provided figures on taxable income in Maine from 1980 to 1994. Reporters compared the database to tax information provided by the Maine Bureauff Taxation and looked at similar information contained in Current Population Surveys conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau.

  Among the key findings: In 1994, the richest 5 percent of Maine households earned 24 percent of the state's total income. Meanwhile, the poorest 39 percent of households collectively earned less than 9 percent of the state's total income.

• Reporters also used a variety of smaller databases, including one on the number of hours that people work. Reporters found that almost one in three people with full-time schedules put in more than 49 hours a week in 1994, compared to one in five in 1982.

  Most of the information was adjusted for inflation using figures provided by the state Department of Labor.