Almost without our noticing it, Maine has become a better place to work.

Naturally, the newspapers as usual are full of problems: high cost of housing, unavailable child care, schools under stress. I’ve never been comfortable with that aspect of my chosen profession.

If we dig a little deeper, there are positive signs people both within and without the state are beginning to notice.

Our biggest problem — going back almost to the beginning of statehood — is that Maine has been a net exporter of young people, the primary reason population growth has lagged the nation’s, and even New England’s, much of the time.

In the early 1950s, the problem was particularly acute. Ed Muskie, running for governor in 1954 in a campaign that forever changed Maine politics, reduced a group of older women in Castine to tears by telling them their sons shouldn’t have to go to “Bridgeport, Hartford and Worcester” to find work. At times, the trend seemed to reverse. The building of a modern, responsible state government under governors like Ken Curtis and Joe Brennan undoubtedly helped — and then the fiscal crisis and reckless shutdown of 1991 put things into reverse.

The 21^st century has presented a decidedly mixed picture, but Maine has emerged from the pandemic in better shape than many predominantly rural states.

Wage growth has been particularly strong for entry-level workers, which can be attributed in part to a competitive minimum wage, enacted through a 2016 referendum mandating four annual increases, followed by inflation adjustments. This year, the wage is $14.15, a reasonable floor to the labor market — as opposed to the absurd $7.25 federal minimum, unchanged for 15 years.

The larger factor driving wages, however, is a labor shortage that was already developing in 2020 but has become acute since then. There’s no doubt this has been a headache for employers, but labor markets are more sensitive than we sometimes imagine. Maine — demographically one of the oldest states — is beginning to see a welcome diversification of the workforce as young people find jobs in everything from farming to high-tech.

It’s true that economic growth, as has been true for decades, is concentrated primarily in southern counties, chiefly Cumberland and York. That’s why it’s particularly important that the state make more effective efforts to attract and develop businesses that can make use of our remarkable natural resource base.

Global warming-fighting projects like the Sears Island wind port for fabricating off-shore towers and the currently stalled effort to build land-based turbines in Aroostook County are vital. But there are other opportunities. The Jesup Memorial Library in downtown Bar Harbor is undertaking a major expansion using “mass timber,” a building technique that substitutes wood for the traditional — and highly energy intensive — steel and concrete framing. Pioneered in Scandinavia where mass timber structures now reach 25 stories, this new building technique is ideally suited to a state with 10 million acres of unorganized territory, and where forest resources have been underutilized since the rapid decline of the paper industry.

And yes, there’s more than enough room for new industry in the vast northern spaces. Plenty of forest land in already under conservation easements, and along much of the coast the primacy of tourism will keep any unwelcome or unwise changes at bay.

Beyond the big projects, there’s intense interest in local economies, again spurred by the pandemic where the vulnerability of global supply chains led to major disruptions. There are well over a hundred farmers’ markets with more being added yearly, and “local food” has also spurred growth in restaurants, breweries and year-round stores.

All this suggests that Maine, which has avoided the problems that can arise from unchecked growth, may be on a more sustainable course for the generations yet to come. If you’re a young Mainer, you can probably find an interesting job here. If you’re a visitor, there may finally be enough here to tempt you to settle down and raise a family.

Labor unions will be necessary to see that favorable working conditions last through economic downturns, and though Maine has never had strong unions, that could be changing too. Public support for unions, which declined markedly through the Reagan years and after, is on the rebound and is now as high as it’s been in more than 60 years.

Labor Day here is the traditional boundary between summer and fall, a pause before the return to school and the departure of millions of visitors.

Maine’s reputation is of people willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to get by. For hard work to be amply rewarded is a bonus.