Jackson Laboratories is giving people more reasons to come and work for them.
Jackson labs is among the states largest employers and plans call for more than two hundred people to be hired next year.
The lab’s staff has been extra busy this year with Covid testing in Hancock county as well as in Connecticut testing up to 20,000 people a day.
As the company continues to grow Chief Operating Officer of Jackson Labs, Catherine Longley, says one of the biggest obstacles when hiring is finding appropriate housing.
“Two thirds of our employees commute off island to bar harbor where our main campus is. And we have had this aspiration for years to build employee housing and now we have the support of our board of trustee’s and our employees to start off modestly with about 24 units in Bar Harbor near our campus”, Said Longley.
Housing is only one of the barriers facing potential employees.
Child care for the staff can be expensive, especially in Bar Harbor.
Jackson Labs has teamed up both Ellsworth and Mount Desert Island Y-M-C-A.
Tommy Parham, Executive Director of the MDI Y-M-C-A says they are excited for the opportunity to help.
Parham added “It will benefit the whole community to be able to provide child care to those ages. We have a good relationship with the Down-East family YMCA, we work together with them on a number of things and it really is exciting for us to work together with them on this project.”
Longley says in addition to housing and child care there is another benefit to their plan.
“The environmental benefit is reducing the carbon footprint. With so many people commuting onto the island, having people more locally will definitely be environmentally positive”, Said Longley.
