Union of Mecholife/Economy

The Union's economy is that of an expanding empire, that is to say, they have a 2% unemployment rate, which is almost perfect for any empire or nation. They aren't a post-scarcity society solely because of Mecholife, which prevents nanotech constructing and producing, meaning that people need to physically make stuff in order to have any form of production. There is zero automation in the Union as a result of this, creating a strong economy so long as basic construction (like ships and other non-living structures) is needed.

Production
Because of mecholife, nanotech and automation are inefficient and useless. So instead, everyone who wants to work can work, and there is even a lack of population that has created a population boom. The majority of the work is simple, factory stuff like assembly lines and food production like harvesting (which has to be done by hand). Mining and other forms of resource collection is the single largest source of jobs in the UM, even if you include the military, government, and education industries as one.

Trade
The UM has many trade routs, as their portal network never functioned properly after the Annihilation. The new portal system, which uses wormholes, takes goods from designated systems (usually ones with a large asteroid belt for use as a spaceport) to their counterparts. Each wormhole only has one counterpart, so the more routs wanted the more wormholes must be sustained. It's not hard, but it is expensive, resource wise, so for the most part ships travel at FTL speeds to terminus points from which they can take a portal to the nearest terminus point to their destination and then travel at FTL speeds to their final destination.

There are no wormholes between the two halves of the Union, as they don't want to ask for permission to have a wormhole network in another empire's territory. This ensures that there IS still a large amount of interstellar traffic of the Union in the regions owned by the Draconis, their only remaining "allies" in the Andromeda Galaxy.

Trans-Empire Trade
The Union, being isolationist, has cut all trade with other empires, except for extremely important things. They do have network connections, so ideas and concepts are traded, but the xenophobic Unioners rarely communicate with other empires.