Diversity & Inclusion

Continued DEI efforts by committed companies will yield high-profile hires and partnerships in 2023

Every December, the WBJ Editorial staff predicts possible news events for the coming year. Here are our predictions and why they will happen.

At the end of 2019, no one could have predicted what the following year would bring: a worldwide pandemic, an economic shutdown, the highest unemployment since the Great Depression, massive government intervention, empty offices, and the start of a recovery.

A joint venture of Gilbane Building Co. of Providence, Rhode Island and Hunt Construction Group, Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations that it misrepresented allocation of work to disadvantaged businesses while building the Polar Park baseball stadium in Worcester. 

Dr. Jennifer Tjia, professor of population and quantitative health sciences at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, is leading a $4.1-million, five-year grant-funded study from the National Institute of Health, exploring equity in caregiving.

The Worcester Business Journal partnered with the nonprofit Worcester Regional Research Bureau on a new project examining how rent increases over the last decade have impacted the city and its businesses, as well as an historic look at how financial decisions rooted in racism 86 years ago have exacerbated the housing and workforce problems today.

As part of the then-new Federal Housing Administration’s effort to give out more home loans, a 1936 assessment of the neighborhoods in Worcester was commissioned by the Home Owners' Loan Corp.

In 1936, seven white men judged which neighborhoods of Worcester were not viable for real estate financing. Today, as rising costs overburden half of renters in the city, those impacted the most are from those neighborhoods still suffering from lack of investment.

As the cost of leased housing has risen and wages have stayed relatively stagnant, the portion of Worcester renters who are overburdened by the cost of their homes has risen to 51%.

WBJ is conducting its annual Economic Forecast survey, gauging readers' opinions about what 2023 will bring. Those who fill out the survey by Dec. 19 will be eligible to win one of three $50 gift cards.