September 13, 2019
Worcester metro area returns, barely, to positive job growth
Image | Courtesy of TMS Aerial Solutions
The Worcester skyline
By Grant Welker
The Worcester metropolitan area eked out positive job growth by the slimmest of margins in July after a year of falling employment numbers.
The new data released late Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the Worcester area adding an estimated 2,000 jobs from July 2018 to July 2019. That brought the regional workforce to 283,600 — a rise of 0.1%.
Other areas of Massachusetts had better job growth, including the Boston area, with a 1.3% increase, and the Springfield area, with a 3.0% increase that appears to be boosted by a sharp increase in leisure and hospitality jobs, with Springfield's MGM casino and hotel opening in August 2018.
Elsewhere, the Providence area grew by 1.4%, and the Hartford area by 0.8%.
The new workforce numbers come at a time of increased speculation among economists of a slowdown in the economy of even a recession in the next year or two. Non-farm employment changes in the Worcester metro area have trailed the national average for nearly three years, with the gap widening in the past year and a half.
The Worcester metro area, which includes Worcester County and Connecticut's Windham County, is already seeing declines in manufacturing, with a 0.4% loss in the past 12 months, and information jobs, with a 5.6% loss. Professional and business services, finance, trade and transportation, and leisure and hospitality jobs also declined over the year.
[Related: Worcester area economic activity contracted in first half of the year]
[Related: Behind for years, Greater Worcester catching up to peers in some important measurements]
[Related: Central Mass. manufacturing no longer outpacing the nation]
Jobs rose in other areas, including education and health services, construction, and government.
The most recent average weekly wages in the Worcester metro area measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics were $1,070. The national average was $1,144.
The Worcester metro area has been an outlier among counterparts in New England with declining job numbers in the past three years. Bridgeport, Conn., had job losses through much of 2016 and the first half of 2017, but not since. The Norwich metro area in New London County in Connecticut has also had 12-month periods with job declines.
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