Greater Worcester has fallen to the middle of the pack among smaller urban areas when it comes to job and wage growth and other workforce measures.
The Worcester metropolitan area ranked 166th among metro areas with less than 1 million people, down from 70th last year in a new Moody’s Analytics analysis of U.S. Department or Labor data. The region, with more than 900,000 people in Worcester County and Connecticut’s Windham County, was ranked among smaller 328 urban areas nationally.
Jobs in the region have shrunk slightly in the last two years, putting greater Worcester at 295th nationally. Labor force growth, which includes those out of work but looking for a job, was 231st, falling from 2.5% last year to 0.3% this year.
[Related:Â Greater Worcester employment grew in 2010s, but manufacturing lost workers]
Those numbers were too much to offset some brighter areas. The Worcester region ranked 45th for labor force participation at 67.2%. The unemployment rate of 3.3% was 106th among these metro areas. Wage growth of 2.9% was 151st.
Other New England metro areas performed better.
Boston was 12th in a separate ranking of larger metropolitan areas, with Providence landing 40th on that list and Hartford 43rd. Among smaller metro areas, Manchester, N.H., was 33rd, Burlington, Vt., 56th, Springfield 63rd, Portland 100th, and Bridgeport 108th. Only the New Haven region scored worse at 207th.
