Maine looks beyond the numbers in search of a fair employment playing field

“Up until this crisis moment, I think there were good intentions, but people didn’t really know they didn’t know,” says Deb Breiting, cofounder of Maine Intercultural Communication Consultants. Employers’ attitude was often, “We want to hire people as long as they have the skills to fit into our company culture.”

The “right person” usually means the white person, according to “The State of Working Maine 2020,” published in November by the Maine Center for Economic Policy. The report found that people of color in Maine — Black, Latinx, Wabanaki, immigrants — are less likely to be hired than white people with the same education and skills.

Click here to read the full story, first published December 14, 2020, in MaineBiz.