E Commonwealth ofMassachusetts Department of , UMASS/AMHERST ^ Employment I ' and Training Massachusetts Service Delivery Area Market Job Reports: SDA The Metro North WilliamF. Weld, Covemor DanielS. Gregory, SecretaryofEconomicAffairs Nils L. Nordberg, CommissionerofEmplovmentand Training Digitized by the Internet Archive 2014 in https://archive.org/details/massachusettsser00mass_4 E ^ Department of , , Employment ' and Training Massachusetts Area Service Delivery Market Job Reports: SDA The Metro North Thefollowing cities and towns comprisethe Metro North SDA: Arlington Everett Reading Watertown Belmont Maiden Revere Wilmington Burlington Medford Somerville Winchester Cambridge Melrose Stoneham Winthrop Chelsea North Reading Wakefield Woburn Economic Research and Analysis Elliot A. Winer, Chief Catherine Foley, Economist N\a> 1991 Contents Introduction: the SDAJob Market Reports 1 How to Interpret theJob Market and Use theReports 2 Overview:JobTrendsin the SDAs 4 TheSDAProfile 12 NotesAbout theData 73 Appendix 74 Tables Changes in Population, Employment and Unemployment byService DeliveryArea 4 Job Growth in Service DeliveryAreasby Sector, 1984-1989 6 Distribution ofJobs in ServiceDeliveryAreas by Industryand Occupation 8 1989Average Annual Wages bySDAand Industry 10 Employment in Major Groups 14 Top Ten Occupations and Industrieswith the Largest Employment 15 Labor Force, Employment and Unemployment 16 TableA: EmploymentbyOccupation 18 Table B: Employment inSelected Occupations byIndustry 28 Table C: Employment in Selected Industries byOccupation 54 Charts Industries differsubstantially in the kinds ofworkers theyemploy 3 Unemployment Rates 1984-1990, Massachusetts and U.S 8 Percentageshareofemployment rising fastest inoccupational groups requiringmoreeducation and decreasingin occupations requiring less education 10 DistributionofEmploymentby Industryand Occupation 13 Introduction: SDA the Job Market Reports This report analyzestheecono- studythegeographicalmovementof mies and job markets of the jobsand workers within thestateto Commonwealth's 15 ServiceDeliv- relatethelocation andnumberof eryAreasbetween 1984and1990. It workersbyoccupation todemand examinesthekindofjobsthatlocal areas generated or lost over the assessandanalyze the occupational period, the industriesthat makeup compositionofjobsandskillrequire- the area, the average earnings of mentswithin areas. workers,thelevelofunemployment andeducationintheworkforce,and Thereare15ServiceDeliveryAreas the distribution ofjobs by occupa- inMassachusetts,each profiledina tion. separate report. Each report,how- ever, contains an overview of the Thisreportprovidesanoverviewof economic growth in all service de- theemergingeconomicforceschang- livery areas. Refer to the appendix ing the job market. Data on local for a listing ofthe cities and iowtis area population, labor force, em- comprisinga service deliveryarea . ployment, unemployment, job growth, wages, and income are in- Service Deliverv'Areas were estab- cluded as well as information on lished under the provisions of the howto interpretand use thedata. 1983 federal Job Training Partner- ship Act, to tailor the Common- This report also analyzes the occu- wealth's employment and training pational staffing patterns of local programsto theneedsofcitizensin economies, publishing for the first local areas. Some service deliverv' time, a detailed occupational em- areasconsistofasinglecountv;others ployment data basebySDA. Labor arecomprisedoftwoormorecoun- leaders,educators,humanresource ties. The Boston Service Deliverv' specialists, and Regional Employ- Area is the only single-citv- SDA, ment Boardscan use this data to: whileothers cross countv' lines. plan anddesign educationand trainingprograms 1 How The1980and 1988populationesti- to mates are from the Bureau of the Census. Natural increases are de- Interpret the Job Market rived from the Massachusetts De- partment of Public Health's esti- mates of births and deaths. Net and Use the Reports migration estimates are derived by subtracting the total net change in populationfrom thenaturalincrease. Labor Force The size and characteristics of the labor force determine the number and type of people competing for jobs. Changes in educational re- quirements, the size of the labor force, and the age structure affect employment opportunities. Table I lists the total number of personsinthelaborforce,i.e.,those This report is divided into two sec- the Standard Industrial Classifica- that are either employed or unem- tions. Section I summarizes the tionManual,1972andthe1977Sup- ployed. This count is residentially- changesinpopulation,employment plement. based and includes self-employed andunemploymentinall 15Service and unpaid familyworkers in addi- DeliveryAreas,highlightingthegeo- How to Use the Data tion towageandsalaryworkers. graphic concentration of jobs by The fc lowing sections briefly out- industryand occupation. Section II line how to interpret and use the Growth vs. Number ofJobs profilestherespectiveservicedeliv- data. Whenassessinganarea'seconomic eryareaandpresentsadetailedseries viability, it is important to distin- oftables on the area's occupations Population guishbetween an area's rate ofjob and industries. Population trends provide a meas- creation and the number of jobs ureofan area's economicstability. generated.Even thoughan areahas TableAin Section IIlists the num- Ifan area has high unemployment a fast rateofjobgrowth it maygen- ber ofjobs by occupation and pro- and is losing its economic base, a erate fewer numbers of jobs than videsthepercentdistributionofthe decline in employment usually re- slow growing areas. For example, jobs within the area, highlighting sults in an eventual decrease in theBrocktonServiceDeliveryArea the diverAse occupational structure population and income. Theoppo- had the second fastest job growth oftheSD Occupationsaregrouped site is generally true in areas with rate,butgeneratedonly4.7percent by skill level to allow comparisons fast growingeconomies. Themore oftheCommonwealth'sjobs. Many ofsimilaror relatedoccupations. jobs an area generates, the more of these jobs were low paying and people move into the area to seek decreasedthearealspercentageshare TableBinSectionIIliststheindus- employment. Population growth, oftotalstatewages. Bycomparison, trieswherejobsare found in major however, can occur independently the city of Boston was the slowest occupations. Finally,Table C pres- of employment in certain areas, growingarea,withjobgrowthaver- ent the number and type of jobs particularlyiftheregion isa retire- aging 0.7 percent per year. Never- fou 1inmajorindustriesinthelocal mentcommunity. theless, because ofits size it gener- economy. Industries are defined in ated 7.6percent ofthestate'sjobs. termsoftheStandard Industrial Qas- Population changes from natural A sification (SIC) system. detailed increases, the difference in the Theindustryemploymentdatashown descriptionoftheSIC,includingin- number of births and deaths, and in Table 2 is compiled through the dus'. definitions is contained in migration,areidentifiedinTableI. Department of Employment and 2