E Commonwealth ofMassachusetts Department of UMASS/AMHERST , Employment ' and Training Massachusetts Service Delivery Area Market Job Reports: SDA The Metro South/West William F. Weld, Covernor DanielS. Gregory, SecretawofEconomicAffairs Nils L. Nordberg. CommissionerofEmplovmentandTraining Department of f Employment and Training Massachusetts Area Service Delivery Job Market Reports: SDA The Metro South/West Berkshire County The following cities and towns comprise the Metro South/West SDA Acton Foxborough Medfield Southborough Ashland Framingham Medway Stow Bedford Franklin Millis Sudbury Bellingham Holliston Natick Walpole Boxborough Hopkinton Needham Waltham Brookline Hudson Newton Wayland Canton Lexington Norfolk Wellesley Carlisle Lincoln Norwood Weston Westwood Concord Littleton Plainville Dedham Marlborough Sharon Wrentham Dover Maynard Sherborn Economic Research and Analysis Elliot A. Winer Chief Catherine Foley Economist Ma\ 1991 Digitized by the Internet Archive 2014 in https://archive.org/details/massachusettsser00mass_5 Contents Introduction: theSDAJob Market Reports 1 Howto Interpret theJob Market and Use theReports 2 Overview: JobTrends in the SDAs 4 The SDAProfile 12 NotesAbout the Data 80 Appendix 81 Tables Changes in Population, Employmentand UnemploymentbyService DeliveryArea 4 Job Growth in Service DeliveryAreas by Sector, 1984-1989 6 Distribution ofJobs in Service DeliveryAreas by Industryand Occupation 8 1989AverageAnnual 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: Employment by Occupation 18 Table B: Employment in Selected Occupations by Industry 29 Table C: Employment in Selected Industries by Occupation 58 Charts Industries differsubstantially in the kinds ofworkers theyemploy 3 Unemployment Rates 1984-1989, Massachusetts and U.S 8 Percentageshareofemployment rising fastest in occupational groups requiring more education and decreasing in occupations requiring less education 10 Distribution ofEmploymentby Industryand Occupation 13 Introduction: SDA the Job Market Reports Thisreport analyzes theecono- 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 industriesthatmake up compositionofjobsandskillrequire- the area, the average earnings of mentswithin areas. workers,thelevelofunemployment andeducationintheworkforce,and Thereare15ServiceDeliver. Areas the distribution ofjobs by occupa- inMassachusetts,each profiled ina tion. separatereport. 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 towns area population, labor force, em- comprisinga servicedeliveryarea . ployment, unemployment, job growth, wages, and income are in- Service Deliver)' Areas were estab- cluded as well as information on lished under the provisions of the howto interpret and 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 the needsofcitizens in economies, publishing for the first local areas. Some service deliver, time, a detailed occupational em- areasconsistofasinglecounty,others ploymentdata basebySDA. Labor arecomprisedoftwoormorecoun- leaders,educators,humanresource ties. The Boston Service Deliver. specialists, and Regional Employ- Area is the only single-city SDA. ment Boardscan use this data to: while others cross county lines. plan anddesign education and trainingprograms 1 How The 1980and 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 populationfromthenaturalincrease. 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- Howto Use the Data tion towageand salaryworkers. graphic concentration of jobs by The following 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- of tables on the area's occupations Population guish between an area's rate ofjob and industries. Population trends provide a meas- creation and the number of jobs ureofan area's economicstability. generated.Even thoughanareahas TableAin Section IIlists the num- Ifan area has high unemployment afastrateofjobgrowth 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 diverse occupational structure population and income. Theoppo- had the second fastest job growth oftheSDA Occupationsaregrouped site is generally true in areas with rate,butgeneratedonly4.7percent by skill level to allow comparisons fast growingeconomies. Themore oftheCommonwealth'sjobs. Many ofsimilaror related occupations. jobs an area generates, the more of these jobs were low paying and people move into the area to seek decreasedthearea'spercentageshare 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,withjobgrowth aver- ents the number and type of jobs particularlyiftheregion is a retire- aging 0.7 percent peryear. Never- found inmajorindustriesinthelocal mentcommunity. theless, becauseofits size it gener- economy. Industries are defined in ated 7.6percent ofthestate'sjobs. termsoftheStandard Industrial Clas- 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 dustry definitions is contained in migration,areidentified inTableI. Department of Employment and 2