Worcester's middle class is shrinking, report finds
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Downtown Worcester
Worcester's middle class has shrunk in the past decade, with more households often finding themselves in or near poverty, according to a report by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau.
The city's middle class — households making between $35,000 and $150,000 — has contracted from 54.8% of the population in 2009 to 52.0% in 2018, the nonpartisan research institute reported in an annual regional almanac Tuesday, citing U.S. Census data.
Most of those struggled with less prosperity. Households earning less than $35,000 rose from 5.6% of the population to 8.3% over that time.
The upper class barely grew — from 39.6% to 39.8%. Instead, by 2018, 21.1% of the city's population was living below the poverty line. That compares to 10.8% statewide and 14.1% nationally.
Most Worcester residents by a wide margin work in educational services, health care or social assistance. Those workers, totaling nearly 28,000, make a median annual salary of $36,054, the report said. The next biggest sector, retail, earns a typical salary of $24,252.
Among other economic findings in the research bureau's report, the city's office vacancy rate has generally been at or just below 10%, according to a sampling by Colliers, a real estate analysis firm. That's down from a high of more than 20% in the third quarter of 2016.
New housing hasn't kept up with previous construction rates over the past two decades. Homes built since 2000 account for 6.2% of the housing stock, less than half the rate of the previous three two-decade spans highlighted. Nearly half of Worcester's housing units were built in the 1930s or earlier.
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