Economist: Worcester doing everything right
Worcester is well-positioned in the fields that correlate most with economic growth, a public policy expert said Friday.
“You’re making the transition faster than anywhere else in the state to the 21st century economy,” Barry Bluestone, director of Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, told a crowd at the Beechwood Hotel. His keynote address was part of the 2014 Economic Forecast forum, sponsored by the Worcester Business Journal.
A study recently completed by Bluestone found that economic development marketing and the timeliness of approvals are most significant in increasing the number of business establishments in a region.
With former Lt. Gov. Tim Murray spearheading regional economic development and Worcester being one of the first places in the commonwealth to adopt six-month permitting process for priority development sites, Bluestone said Worcester was excelling in the areas that matter most.
“Everything you’re doing in Worcester, you’re doing right,” he said.
Expedited permitting has become increasingly important as companies face more pressure to get their products to the market quickly.
“Anything that slows you down is going to harm you,” Bluestone said.
Bluestone’s study considered 26 factors and relied on self-assessments from 90 municipalities (60 of which were in Massachusetts) and feedback from location experts.
Other key factors in attracting new businesses included parking, public transit, site availability and low traffic congestion, Bluestone said. Much to his surprise, crime rates and property tax levels didn’t correlate much with business establishment growth.
Bluestone also praised Worcester County for attracting 3,100 new health care and social service companies to the region since 2001, making it by far the region’s fastest growing sector. Other areas of job growth included education and hotel and food services.
Citywide, 31 percent of Worcester employees work in health care or social services (higher than either Boston or Cambridge), 16 percent work in education and 6.5 percent work in hospitality or food services.
However, Worcester’s overall private sector employment is down 3.8 percent since 2001, far worse than the commonwealth as a whole, where employment has grown by 0.7 percent over that period.
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