After the coronavirus pandemic forced changes to work life – particularly an increase in remote work and a decrease in the need for office space – the results of this survey seem to suggest businesses are reverting to their traditional thinking.
At the end of 2020, when WBJ conducted its annual Economic Forecast survey of its readers, the pervasive feeling was the region’s economy had nowhere to go but up. This fueled optimism in that 2020 survey of significant jumps forward in economic growth and business progress and recovery from the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, WBJ decided to do its first-ever Mid-Year Economic Forecast survey of its readers, to gauge how they felt about the progress against the pandemic and its economic fallout. Nearly all of the state-imposed business restrictions designed to limit the spread of the virus have been lifted – including the mask mandate – and 44% of Worcester County residents and 54% of Middlesex County residents have been vaccinated, according to the New York Times tracking of COVID-19 data. Even though the pandemic is still a very real aspect of the global society, it is starting to feel like the Central Massachusetts economy is leaving the coronavirus behind.
[See the full results in the slideshow at the top of this page.]
As a result, the findings of the Mid-Year Economic Forecast survey read like the Central Massachusetts business community is in a recovery, rather than on the cusp of a giant boom. The same optimism that marked the December 2020 survey is largely still in this May 2021 survey, with some of the edge taken off. Slightly fewer readers are projecting economic improvement in the coming months, for example, although more than two-thirds of readers are anticipating some degree of improvement.
After the coronavirus pandemic forced changes to work life – particularly an increase in remote work and a decrease in the need for office space – the results of this survey seem to suggest businesses are reverting to their traditional thinking, calling for most employees to be in the office and to maintain or grow their office space needs.
As with everything, though, change remains constant, and the business community must react to what comes.
– Brad Kane, editor
